By Jim Dower: Elias Nassar, the manager for Vic Darchinyan (35-3-1, 27 KO’s), says the World Boxing Council will order a rematch between Darchinyan and undefeated Mexican Abner Mares (21-0-1, 13 KO’s) due to Darchinyan losing a controversial 12 round split decision to Mares in December in Showtime’s four-fighter bantamweight tournament. Darchinyan and his manager filed a protest after the defeat, feeling that they should have won the fight.

Apparently, Darchinyan wasn’t pleased with the referee working the fight, as he failed to stop Mares from landing numerous low blows during the fight. The referee did take off one point from Mares in the 4th after repeated warnings over and over again. However, the point deduction failed to curb the low blows as Mares continued to land them with great frequency for the remainder of the fight.

According to ninesmasn.co.au, Nassar says that the WBC has agreed to order a rematch. In the meantime, the loss still counts and Darchinyan will be facing Yonnhy Perez )20-1-1, 14 KO’s) in the next bantamweight tournament fight on April 23rd at the Nokia Theater, in Los Angeles, California.

Darchinyan faded badly in the Mares fight, and was unable to put his punches together in the last four rounds of the fight. Instead of throwing combinations, Darchinyan kept looking for one big punch at a time. When he was fighting at flyweight and super flyweight, Darchinyan had the power to stop most of his opponents with his big shots. But since moving up to bantamweight, his power isn’t getting him the same results as it did in the lower weights. His last three fights have all been 12 round bouts with Darchinyan winning two out of three.

Mares was able to outwork Darchinyan in the final rounds of the fight. At the end, it looked as if Mares was the winner of the fight. The only real question about the fight was that Mares was able to land low blows at a great frequency without being further penalized and/or disqualified. I’ve seen fighters disqualified for far less low blows than the ones Mares was landing.

Darchinyan, 34, might want to consider moving back down in weight after the tournament is over because his losses to Mares and Joseph Agbeko are a signal that he doesn’t have the size to dominate at this weight like he did at super flyweight and flyweight.