By Chris Williams: 37-year-old Vic Darchinyan (38-5-1, 27 KO’s) thinks WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire is ducking him, and he believes he’ll beat him if he agrees to face him. Donaire’s team had been thinking about facing Darchinyan next if they weren’t able to line up a unification fight against WBA super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux, but they were able to agree to a fight against the Cuban on April 13th in New York.
It looks like Darchinyan didn’t take the news too well judging by his comments. Darchinyan said to fightnews.com “Nonito got lucky in 2007, but it would be a different result in 2013. Prove that you’re not scared of me…Prove to me you’re not chicken.”
If Donaire beats Rigondeaux on April 13th then we just may well see a rematch between Darchinyan and Donaire because it’s not as if Donaire has anyone else to fight at super bantamweight. There’s Darchinyan, Christian Mijares, Carl Frampton, Scott Quigg and Victor Terrazaz, and Darchinyan is easily the best known of that bunch.
It goes without saying Darchinyan will likely be next unless Donaire moves up to featherweight. I don’t think he’s got the build to fight at that weight to be honest, and if they throw Donaire in with someone like Mikey Garcia, it’ll end badly for Donaire. Garcia is higher level puncher, and he’d have everything in his favor.
Donaire’s promoter Bob Arum will likely keep Donaire far away from Garcia if Donaire moves up in weight in the near future. I see Donaire staying at super bantamweight because he can milk his WBO title at this weight for a long time IF he can get past Rigondeaux in April. If Donaire beats Rigondeaux, then there’s no one else that will be able to touch Donaire among the exiting super bantamweight champions and contender.
Darchinyan was stopped in the 5th round by Donaire in 2007. There hasn’t been a rematch all this time largely because of how one-sided that fight was. Darchinyan telegraphed every punch he threw, and Donaire did a great job of nailing him. Nothing would change in a rematch because Darchinyan still telegraphs all of his shots.
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