Former IBF flyweight champion Vic Darchinyan (29-1, 23 KOs) had a tough time in stopping Federico Catubay (20-14-3, 11 KOs) in the 12th round on Saturday night at the Auburn RSL Club, Auburn (Sydney), in New South Wales, Australia. In his first bout since losing his IBF flyweight title to Nonito Donaire in a 5th round knockout on July 7th, Darchinyan struggled with Catubay and was hurt several times by wild shots. However, Darchinyan continued with his own power shots and eventually knocked Catubay down in the 7th, and 11th rounds before the fight was ultimately stopped in the 12th.
Darchinyan was far from impressive, however, as he still telegraphed his left hand much in the same manner as in his other fights, and was susceptible to hooks thrown by Catubay. In the sixth round, Darchiyan was nailed by a powerful right hook, which sent him flying to the bottom ropes where he hung there like a fly caught in a spider web. Not sure why the referee didn’t count that as knockdown, because Darchinyan’s glove had touched the canvas, but whatever the case, he was knocked down in my book. In the first several rounds, Darchinyan looked cautious, throwing his shots with calculation rather than his usual all out style.
Obviously, the knockout loss to Donaire had effected Darchinyan a great deal and made him more careful. Catubay, 26, was totally wild with his punches, missing many of them by a mile. He appeared to be in love with his hooks, and threw them with huge aces with all his power in every shot. Most of the time they would miss, but when they did connect, Darchinyan would feel the effects, often being knocked off balance, or hurt by them. Going into the bout, Darchinyan was expected to destroy Catubay in the early rounds of the fight, as he had a large number of losses and was known for having a weak chin. Add to that, Catubay is small for a flyweight, only 5’2,” which gave the 5’5 1/2 Darchinyan a significant height advantage.
Nevertheless, Darchinyan continued to struggle with Catubay round after round, beating him every round but taking tremendous shots and not looking good. Darchinyan knocked Catubay down with a straight left in the 7th round, It looked for a second that he’d be able to stop him in this round, but Catubay was able to last out the remainder of the round despite taking huge left hands by Darchinyan. In the 8th round, Catubay looked exhausted and had visible swelling underneath each eye. Following advice from his corner, Darchinyan landed a large number of crushing uppercuts, which would have knocked out most fighters.
However, Catubay took the shots well, although he was staggered by one of them. In the 9th round, Darchinyan continued throwing huge uppercuts and badly telegraphed straight left hands. Catubay was bouncing all around the ring from the effects of the huge punches, looking like a pin ball. Still, however, Catubay was always able to get his wits together enough to launch one of his wild hooks, which had a calming effect on Darchinyan, who didn’t want to get hit with them after being hurt earlier in the fight twice by them. In the 10th round, Darchinyan controlled the round up until the last minute when Catubay landed several monstrous hooks, stunning Darchinyan and causing him to back away.
However, Catubay was unable to finish him off because his aim was so bad with his follow-up shots, enabling Darchinyan to escape the round without being knocked down. In the 11th round, Darchinyan knocked Catubay down with a left uppercut early in the round. From that point on, it was Darchinyan, as he pounded away at the tired and hurt Catubay for the remainder of the round.
In the 12th, Darchinyan continued where he left off, landing huge left uppercuts and straight lefts without any worry of return fire, as Catubay was too exhausted and hurt to offer up any offense of his own. Finally, the referee had seen enough after watching Catubay stagger around for most of the 12th round, and moved in and halted the brutality.