Arce vs. Darchinyan On February 7th

By Boxing News - 12/29/2008 - Comments

darchinyan3241334By Dave Lahr: Two-time former light flyweight champion and current interim WBA super flyweight champion Jorge Arce (51-4-1, 39 KOs) will be facing IBF/WBC super flyweight champion Vic Darchinyan (31-1-1, 25 KOs) in a title match on February 7th at The Pond, in Anaheim, California. This figures to be a tough fight for Arce, 29, who has a history of cuts and will be probably finding his face tested often by the titanic shots that Darchinyan will be throwing his way.

Arce has a lot of knockouts on his record, but most of them have occurred in the flyweight division against smaller fighters than Darchinyan. Arce doesn’t figure to have the power to stand and trade shots with Darchinyan for long without running into something big or end up getting cut badly.

In his last fight, Darchinyan (31-1-1, 25 KOs) destroyed WBA/WBC super flyweight champion Cristian Mijares (36-4-2, 15 KOs), taking him out in the 9th round to win the Mijares’ WBA and WBC super featherweight titles. Darchinyan knocked Mijares down in the 1st round with a big left uppercut.

From there, Mijares never stood a chance, as he was too weak, slow and no match for the power punching of Darchinyan. Mijares attempted to use his jab to control the shorter Darchinyan on the outside, but it was useless. Darchinyan often charged him, coming in fast and tagging him with straight lefts and hard right hooks to the head.

Once inside, Darchinyan often stayed there for a bit, blasting Mijares with powerful uppercuts and hooks. Mijares, a good outside fighter but a terrible inside fighter, was helpless against Darchinyan at close range and took a great deal of punishment until the 9th round stoppage. At no time, was Mijares able to compete with Darchinyan.

Interestingly enough, Mijares, 27, easily defeated Arce in April 2007, beating him by a one-sided 12-round unanimous decision, and turning back Arce’s attempt to win Mijares’ WBC super flyweight title.
Arce, however, stayed with it in the super flyweight division, beating a handful of lower quality fighters, working his way up to the WBA super flyweight interim title without having to take on any real tough opponents.

A tough opponent is exactly what Arce is going to be getting on February 7th against Darchinyan, and he’ll be in for a rude awakening against the powerful Darchinyan. Arce, who has been a slugger for most of his career, has recently started using more boxing skills in his last few fights since his defeat to Mijares.

The improvement, however, has been only minimal and he still has shown a tendency to slug it out with his opposition. It hasn’t mattered against the weaker fighters that Arce has faced in his last five fights since losing to Mijares, but against Darchinyan, Arce had better discover some dormant boxing ability or else it will likely be an early night for him.

In his last fight, Arce struggled in the 1st round against Isidro Garcia (25-6-2, 8 KOs), taking a lot of big shots. However, Arce rebounded well and ended up hurting Garcia in the 4th round with a left to the body and left to the head. Arce then dropped him with a left to the body. After Garcia got up, Arce quickly finished him off with a flurry of hard shots to the head and body until referee Tony Weeks stopped the bout.



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