Arce To Fight Darchinyan on Feb. 7th

By Boxing News - 11/27/2008 - Comments

Image: Arce To Fight Darchinyan on Feb. 7thBy Dave Lar: World Boxing Council/International Boxing Federation super flyweight champion Vic Darchinyan (31-1-1, 25 KOs) will be going up against interim WBA super flyweight champion Jorge Arce (51-4-1, 39 KOs) in a 12-round title bout on February 7th, at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

Arce has been pursuing a fight with Darchinyan for some time, but up until now the Armenian fighter wasn’t interested in fighting him as he was seeking to rebuild his career following a 5th round stoppage to Nonito Donaire in July 2007.

Darchinyan, however, rebounded well from his defeat, winning three out of his last four fights with one of the bouts ending in a very controversial draw with Z Gorres in the Philippines. Darchinyan appeared to easily win the fight, but because he was fighting in Z Gorres’ home town, the fight turned out to be a draw.

Arce, 29, is a former WBC light flyweight champion who held onto his title for nine successful title defenses and four long years before giving up the title in 2005 to move up to the flyweight division where he was briefly the interim WBC flyweight champion.

However, Arce again moved up in weight due to the struggles he had to deal with in staying at the flyweight division and moved up to the super flyweight class where he won his first two bouts against Masibulele Makepula and Julio David Roque Ler before losing a one-sided unanimous decision to Cristian Mijares in April 2007, a fight in which Arce was dominated from start to finish by Mijares.

It wasn’t just a case of Arce having an off night, because he was doing pretty much the same things he always does, namely fighting hard on the inside and throwing a lot of punches to the body and head.

Rather, it was Mijares fighting superbly from both the outside, using jab and on the inside where he countered Arce and out landed him with flurries of punches. So one-sided was the fight that a case could have been made that the fight should have been stopped by the 8th when Arce was cut over his eyes and had no chance at winning.

Darchinyan, 32, stopped IBF super flyweight champion Dimitri Kirilov in a 5th round stoppage in February, dominating the Russian Kirilov throughout the five rounds of the fight. Then to top off the year, Darchinyan took out Mijares in a 9th round stoppage, making it look easy.

Darchinyan dropped Mijares at the end of the 1st round with a huge left uppercut to the head that had Mijares flat on his back on the canvas for several moments before he was finally able to sit up. Then in the 9th, Darchinyan unloaded on Mijares with a flurry of jarring shots to the head, ending with two big lefts that dropped Mijares for the second and final time in the bout. The fight was then stopped by the referee.

As for Arce’s chances of defeating Darchinyan on February 7th, there not good. Darchinyan is a much bigger puncher than him, and even though Arce can punch well on his accord, he’s nowhere near as powerful and lethal as Darchinyan.

The best I can see Arce doing in the fight is by somehow staying on his feet long enough to lose by another lopsided decision. I see him going down once or twice, getting cut up badly but having enough of a chin to survive until the bitter end.

Realistically, Arce needs to drop down in weight a couple of divisions back to the light flyweight class where he has more of a chance to compete against the smaller fighters like Edgar Sosa and Ulises Solis.