By Aaron Klein: Rebounding from a loss of his flyweight title last July in a 5th round stoppage loss to Nonito Donaire, knockout artist Vic Darchinyan (30-1-1, 24 KOs), now fighting as a super flyweight, totally destroyed IBF champion Russian Dimitri Kirilov (29-4-1, 9 KOs) in the 5th round of a scheduled 12-round bout on Saturday night at the Emerald Queen Casino, in Tacoma, Washington. Darchinyan, 32, twice floored a bloody Kirilov in the 5th round, leading to referee Earl Brown to step in and halt the fight at 1:05 of the round. It was a case of too much power for the Armenian Darchinyan, who dominated the weaker-punching boxer Kirilov in all five rounds, battering him around the ring with big shots to the head and body.
For many boxing fans and experts, this was an outcome that was predictable given Kirilov’s lack of power and the closeness with which he had both won and defended his IBF title. Darchinyan, 5’5,” who has problems against taller fighters with a lot of power, didn’t have worry about that against the shorter 5’4″ Kirilov who had neither the height or the power to worry Darchinyan much. Without any real threat to be concerned with from Kirilov, Darchinyan happily telegraphed his power shots much as he always does without fear of getting countered like he was over and over against by Donaire in his title-losing loss to the Filipino star a year ago.
Darchinyan immediately went after Kirilov in the 1st round, hitting him big shots with his left in which he, like always, would get a running start and come dashing in with a left hand. Darchinyan’s attacks are never disguised in anyway, which has lead to problems for him in fights. However, Kirilov didn’t have the ability to pick him off with shots as he could come running in to land his lefts and hence he was forced to take the big shots. Kirilov tried moving to his right, hoping that would minimize the power on Darchinyan’s shots, but it proved to be entirely ineffective for Darchinyan easily pivoted and found him with left hands without a problem.
The round was ugly and one-sided, a clear indication that there was going to be major obstacles for Kirilov if he wanted to continue to hold onto his IBF title. Adjustments were clearly needed by Kirilov, but he seemed incapable of doing what was needed, as he continued to stand in front of Darchinyan in the 2nd round, taking bit shots without returning anything. I take that back. Kirilov did fire off some hard left hooks, two of them, to the body and head in the last minute of the round, but unfortunately for him, he immediately stopped punching after those punches were delivered.
Without having to get hit back, Darchinyan had a field day landing his left hand in the last minute of the round, forgetting completely about his weaker fight hand and just pasting the hapless Kirilov again and again with straight left hands to the head. In between rounds, Kirilov’s trainer seemed to be at a loss with what to do to bring Kirilov back into the fight. Whatever they tried, moving, boxing and keeping distance, had failed against Darchinyan, who simply closed distance by rushing in at a full gallop to get in punching range.
In the 3rd and 4th rounds, Darchinyan continued to pour in heavy left hand shots to the head of Kirilov, not letting up on him for an instant. Kirilov’s nose began to bleed all over the place, causing him to constantly touch it with his glove, wiping blood all over his face and making him almost child-like in the process. In a way it was fitting somehow, because he was getting whipped like a child by Darchinyan and he couldn’t do a thing to stop other than take the abuse.
In the 5th round, with blood pouring out of his nose like a leaky faucet, Kirilov was quickly put down by a big left hand. He got up but looked in bad shape, and after getting hit with a two more left hands, Kirilov went down for the second time after getting hit with a huge left to the head. The fight – if you want to call it that – was then stopped by referee Earl Brown at 1:05 of the 5th round. Afterwards, when asked if Darchinyan would be interested in fighting Donaire in a rematch, Darchinyan said that he would, although he sounded less than enthusiastic about the prospect.