By Jim Dower: IBF/WBC super flyweight champion Vic Darchinyan (31-1-1, 25 KOs) mixes it up against veteran Jorge Arce (51-4-1, 39 KOs) on February 7th at The Pond, in Anaheim, California. This is a tough fight to predict a winner of because Darchinyan – an all offense type fighter – has shown to be vulnerable to a lead hook when coming inside to land his telegraphed bombs, and if anything, Arce’s got a great left hook and throws it with a lot of power.
Darchinyan, however, is expected to win this fight by knockout by many boxing experts. But if this all sounds familiar, it comes to no surprise to me either. Darchinyan was also expected to stop Nonito Donaire in 2007, but as things turned out, it was Darchinyan who was stopped in the fight and was taken out in the 5th round.
Darchinyan has rebounded from the defeat to Donaire, winning his last four fights over quality opposition, ending with his impressive 9th round stoppage win over Cristian Mijares in November to win the WBA and WBC super flyweight titles. With many people giving Darchinyan little chance of beating Mijares, Vic knocked Mijares down twice in the fight, once in the 1st and another time in the 9th round.
Both knockdowns were a product of Darchinyan’s powerful straight left hand, a weapon that Mijares had to defense against and was nailed often by in the fight. Mijares attempted to box from the outside but Darchinyan was having none of it, rushing him over and over again and hitting him with hard left hands to the head.
Mijares fought decent from the outside, when Darchinyan would let him, but Vic would then foil any momentum that Mijares was making in the fight by rushing him and pelting him with big shots. In the end, Mijares simply didn’t have the offensive weapons to content with Darchinyan, who turned the fight into an all out brawl and didn’t allow Mijares to box from the outside for any length of time.
Arce, if he hopes to have any success against Darchinyan, he’s going to have to try beat Darchinyan at his own game. Arce probably won’t be able to win this fight by staying on the outside and periodically seeking exchanges with Darchinyan. If Arce fights in this manner, it will allow Darchinyan to dictate the pace and punish Arce with flurries. Arce’s face probably won’t be able to take a lot of punishment in the fight due to the excessive scar tissue around his eyes.
Arce looked good in his last fight, taking out Isidro Garcia in a 4th round stoppage in November. Arce landed a powerful left to the body in the 4th followed by a left to the head that hurt Garcia. Arce followed that with a perfect left to the body, knocking Garcia down. Arce then finished off a hurt Garcia with a flurry of shots. Arce has won his last five fights since suffering a 12-round decision loss to Mijares in April 2007.
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