By Sam Gregory: During an interview regarding his up-coming fight with the WBA Interim super flyweight champ Jorge Arce on February 7th, undisputed super flyweight champion Vic “The Raging Bull” Darchinyan made the following statement to the press, “I can’t get enough of Mexican fighters. They bounce real good off the canvas when I hit them. Let’s see, I’ve stopped Cristian Mijares, Victor Burgos, and Luis Maldonado over the past two years. Unlike Jorge Arce, those three fighters were very tough hombres. Defeating Arce won’t take much training. It won’t even be a fight for me!”
The Armenian southpaw who currently sports a professional record of 31-1-1 with 25 knockouts, has always been known for his brash comments and overwhelming confidence. “But now its personal” said Arce.
Jorge Arce, who’s current record is 49-4-1 with 37 knockouts, has only had one lose in his last 32 fights. Arce is an experienced fighter who fights with power and loves to go toe to toe with his opponents and exchange punches. Arce once said, “I like getting hit; it gives me fuel to hit back even harder”.
According to Jorge Arce’s trainer Tiburcio Garcia, “The remarks Vic Darchinyan made are going to hurt his chances to get a victory”. Many boxers are known to make brash statements before a big fight to get under their opponents skin and into their head to hopefully affect their thinking in the ring. But according to the Arce camp, “Darchinyan crossed a dangerous line that he will pay for”.
In a more recent interview with the media Darchinyan, who makes his home in Australia, said of his Mexican opponent, “I hope he (Arce) watched the Antonio Margarito – Sugar Shane Mosley welterweight fight in Los Angles. If Arce watched the fight than he knows his future, which will come to pass when we meet on February 7th”.
“If I were Arce’s team, said Darchinyan, “I’d MapQuest the quickest routes from the Honda Center to John Wayne Airport so he can get out of town fast. Unlike Mosley I am not waiting for the ninth round for the knockout. I am going to stop “Farce” quickly so he can take his black-eyes on the red-eye out that same night. Whether Mexico lets him back in, well that’s another issue.”
When Arce missed the pre fight press conference last Saturday Darchinyan jumped on the opportunity to say, “I was looking forward to facing him last Saturday at our press conference in Los Angles, but he didn’t show. As my promoter Gary Shaw said, they decided to serve “Chicken a la Arce” two weeks early.”
Vic Darchinyan will defend his unified Jr bantamweight titles against Jorge Arce at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California on February 7th in the season premiere of Showtime Championship Boxing.
The two fighters had been building toward this match last year with their trash talking trying to stoke fans interest. Unfortunately, bad blood between promoter Gary Shaw and Top Rank, combined with Arce’s one-sided decision lose to Cristian Mijares in April of 2007 and Darchinyan losing his flyweight title by way of a brutal knockout at the hands of Nonito Domaire in July of 2007, knocked the fight off track.
The time is finally right since the promoters have settled their differences; Arce has won five fights in a row while claiming an interim belt; and Darchinyan moved up in weight to join Arce at junior bantamweight, where he won a title and unified three belts with a 9th round knockout of Mijares on November 1st.
“Everything in life is about timing and the timing is finally right for this fight,” said promoter Gary Shaw. Top Rank’s Bob Arum said he was pleased the main event came together. “I think it’s a very interesting fight”, Arum said. “Everybody worked together but the guy who has to get credit for getting all these crazy people together, myself included, is (Showtime’s) Ken Hershman. That’s the fight he wanted he got it done.”
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