By Sean McDaniel: Former two division world champion Vic Darchinyan (37-4-1, 27 KO’s) will be looking to add a new title in a different division on Friday night against WBC bantamweight champion Shinsuke Yamanaka (15-0-2, 11 KO’s) at the Tokyo International Forum, in Tokyo, Japan.

Darchinyan, 36, hopefully fights a lot better than he did in his last fight against Anselo Moreno, who defeated him by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision last December in a failed attempt for Darchinyan to try and win the WBA Super World bantamweight title. Darchinyan will now try it again in a fight against an arguably weaker champion in 29-year-old Yamanaka.

Darchinyan should win this fight but if he doesn’t, then he needs to seriously consider moving back down in weight to the super flyweight or flyweight divisions. Darchinyan was dangerous at those weights but he’s been less consistent since moving up to the bantamweight division on a permanent basis in 2010. Darchinyan has lost to Joseph Agbeko, Abner Mares and Moreno at bantamweight.

Yamanaka has a pretty weak resume. He picked up the vacant WBC title in his last fight against Christian Esquivel last November in an 11th round TKO win. However, before that, Yamanaka had been facing mostly Japanese fighters with limited experience and records such as 8-0, 9-3, 9-0.

Yamanaka has fought mostly guys with little in the way of experience. It’s a wonder how Yamanaka was even given a title shot based on the guys he’s fought. But he really looked out in it being Esquivel instead of someone dangerous that could possibly beat him like Fernando Montiel, Agbeko or Darchinyan.

Darchinyan will definitely win this fight unless it’s one of those hometown decisions that we sometimes see in the sport. Darchinyan has the better power if not the better hand speed, and he’s certainly got the much better experience against quality opposition compared to Yamanaka.