By Chris Williams: I had a sinking feeling that this was going to be a mismatch, but I hoped it would be wrong. I wasn’t. IBF/WBA/WBC super flyweight champion Vic Darchinyan (32-1-1, 26 KOs) toyed with Jorge Arce (51-5-1, KOs) for 11 rounds, winning by an easy 11th round TKO on Saturday night at The Pond, in Anaheim, California. With Arce, 29, cut around both eyes and taking a lot of punishment in the 11th, the ringside doctor stepped in between the 11th and 12th rounds and stopped the fight due to the bad cut on the side of Arce’s right eye, which had made it hard for Arce to see out of the eye.
Arce wasn’t pleased with the stoppage, at least he said as much afterwards, but judging by his body language in the 11th, he looked as if he was finished and probably wouldn’t have made it through the 12th without being knocked out by Darchinyan.
As it was, Arce looked bad through the 11 round, missing with many of his shots, looking terribly awkward and clinching at a high rate. It looked as if Arce was stalling from round one, because he was landing few punches and clinching like no tomorrow. For boxing fans that had hoped to see an exciting, action packed fight, they had to be content with seeing Darchinyan loading up with every shot and hammering an inept Arce around the ring all night.
It looked as if Arce didn’t belong in the same ring with Darchinyan, though not for lack of talent but rather because Jorge simply looked too small and weak to compete effectively with the hard punching Darchinyan. Arce’s problem, it seems, is that when he moved up from the flyweight division in 2006, he didn’t retain the same kind of power that he previously had in the lower weight class, even though he’s defeated most of his opponents by knockout since moving up in weight.
Arce was falling all over Darchinyan in the first three rounds of the bout on Saturday night, clumsily missing and getting manhandled by the stronger Darchinyan. Arce was cut on the right side of his eye on the first round, whereas Darchinyan was cut on the side of his nose in the 3rd.
Neither cut was a factor at the time, though Arce’s would eventually cause him problems late in the fight. Cut or no cut, it wasn’t the reason why Arce was getting dominated by Darchinyan all night long. That reason was because of Darchinyan’s massive power advantage he had over the smaller Arce, making the fight almost unfair.
Maybe if Arce was 20 pounds heavier and with a lot more strength, he could have matched up better with Darchinyan, but I could see him losing even under those circumstances because Darchinyan is like a freak of nature with his incredible punching power in his left hand.
Arce charged him frequently in the first three rounds and was caught by short right hooks and straight left hands from Darchinynan. The right hook is a relatively new weapon for Darchinyan, who has mostly relied in large part on his left hand to inflict all the damage on his opponents. With his new right hook, though, Darchinyan was a much improved fighter than before and hard to hit without getting tagged by something coming in.
Darchinyan hurt Arce with a monstrous left uppercut late in the 4th, staggering Arce slightly and causing him to try and clinch. Darchinyan continued pasting him with big shots in the little time remaining in the round.
In the 5th, Arce began to clinch often, usually after every punch attempt that he made. He also began wrestling with Darchinyan in clinches reminding me a little of Ricky Hatton. Arce had little luck offensively, missing with most of the punches that he attempted in the round and landing only a few meaningless punches. A cut opened up on the left side of Arce’s head in the round, possibly caused by a clash of heads. The blood dripped continuously, falling down onto the side of his left ear and shoulders.
Darchinyan totally dominated rounds six through eight, loading up with big running left hands to the head and uppercuts. Arce was taking a vicious pounding, even though Darchinyan was landing less often than he normally does against many of his opponents. Perhaps for this reason, Arce was able to last a lot longer than the typical Darchinyan opponent. However, in lasting longer, Arce was forced to absorb more accumulated punishment in the 11 rounds that he stood up to Darchinyan’s shots.
In the 9th, Arce was now cut over both eyes and bleeding badly. Late in the round, Darchinyan landed a hard left hand while coming out of a clinch with Arce, hurting Jorge and at the same time angering him. Arce then fought back hard for several seconds afterwards but had to be content with only being able to wrestle Darchinyan roughly in one of the clinches.
In the 10th and 11th, Darchinyan’s punch output dropped off significantly, as he was clinched often by Arce. Darchinyan was also loading up more with his shots and looking for a knockout shot. In the 11th, Arce could barely see out of his right eye after taking some hard left hands from Darchinyan, which appeared to open up the preexisting cut over Arce’s eye even more, causing blood to leak into Arce’s eye and making it hard for him to see out of it.
With only partial vision out of the eye, Arce was battered for most of the round, falling into the ropes at one point after getting hit by a big left hand from Darchinyan. Using a system of clinches and movement, Arce somehow was able to make it out of the round without taking too much additional punishment from Darchinyan. Arce looked as if he didn’t want to fight anymore at that point. In between rounds, the ringside doctor moved in and stopped the fight due to Arce’s cut.
“I’m sure in the 12th rounds, I was going to stop him,” Darchinyan said later after the fight. “He was close to going down in the 11th. I’m happy with the result. I took some punches too.”
Arce had this to say: “Darchinyan was using lots of elbows and it effected me. I would like a rematch. ..I don’t why the doctor stopped the fight.”