“Raging Bull” Darchinyan Keeps His Promise

By Ray Sharma at ringside: Vic Darchinyan boasted for weeks he’d knock out Cristian Mijares in their junior bantamweight unification match up. Saturday night, he backed up the talk with his fists.

Darchinyan, the reigning IBF champion, put on a sensational performance in knocking out WBC and WBA titlist Mijares in nine rounds before 3,076 at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, USA.

“I promised everyone I would fight skillful, smart. I would destroy him and knock him out, and that’s what I did,” Darchinyan said.

Conventional wisdom held that the technical skill of Mexico’s Mijares would prevail over the Armenian-Australian’s brute force. Darchinyan though showed good defense and patience in addition to his trademark power punching.

Darchinyan got off to strong start. A wicked left uppercut dropped a crouching Mijares in the first round. In the second, Darchinyan stunned his rival with another left.

“Each round I caught him with the left hands,” said Darchinyan.

Mijares assumed the unlikely role of aggressor by round four, coming forward as “the Raging Bull” looked for openings for the left. Darchinyan was able to move away or block much of Mijare’s attack, and continued to land strong lefts set up by a pawing right jab.

Mijares had his best round of the fight in the seventh, bringing the mostly Hispanic crowd to life after connecting solidly. Darchinyan rallied late in the round however, landing a series of lefts. Round seven was the only one given to Mijares on the scorecards of judges Jack Reiss and Marty Denkin. Pat Russell, who also had the bout scored 79-72 for Darchinyan at the time of the stoppage, gave it to Vic.

In the ninth, Darchinyan ended matters in spectacular fashion. A well-placed left to the chin put Mijares flat on his back late in the round. Referee Dr. Lou Moret began to count before waving off the contest at the 3:00 mark. Darchinyan improves to 31-1 (25), while Mijares is now 36-4-2 (15).

Darchinyan said he gained motivation for the bout after learning the vast majority of journalists picked Mijares to defeat him.

“To all the reporters in boxing who think they are so great, I’m not bothered by that but it made me concentrate more,” he said.

Former Olympian Andre Direll prepared for a possible WBO title challenge in early 2009 with an impressive sixth round stoppage of valiant Victor Oganov in the co-feature. The super middleweight contest had been scheduled for twelve rounds. Direll improves to 17-0(12), while Oganov slips to 28-2(28).

Fighting for the first time since his release from prison, former amateur star Marshall Martinez out boxed journeyman Michael Lucero en route to a unanimous decision. All scorecards for the junior welterweight bout were 60-54. Martinez, who served four years in federal prison on drug dealing charges, is now 8-0-1(5).

Unbeaten featherweight Derrick Wilson showed fast hands in his four round unanimous decision over Alvaro Muro. The willing Muro had his moments but Wilson’s quickness
was too much. All three judges scored the bout 40-36 for the 4-0(1) Wilson. Muro’s record now stands at 6-10(5).

In the opener, Jesse Vargas improved to 3-0 with a stoppage over Michael Lynks. The bout was halted on the ringside physician’s advice after two rounds. Vargas, fighting out of the Mayweather gym in Las Vegas, couldn’t miss with his jab, and floored the veteran with a right late in the opening stanza. With Lynks bloodied and obviously outgunned, the fight was stopped around later. Lynks is now 6-8-2(2).

Carlos Deleon Jr. knocked down Brad Austin three times to score a third round TKO in a super middleweight bout. Deleon Jr. is 21-2-2(14).

Notes

WBC Super Lightweight champion Timothy Bradley Jr. was in attendance. The likable Bradley was scheduled to fly to China Saturday night to attend the WBC Convention. Bradley may face the winner of next month’s WBO junior welterweight clash between Kendall Holt and Ricardo Torres.

Darchinyan can now make a claim to be the best junior bantamweight ever since he’s the first man to hold all 3 major titles at 115 pounds. Many feel that honor should go to Thailand’s Khaosai Galaxy however. The hard-punching Thai made 19 successful defenses of the WBA belt during a championship reign that spanned from November 1994 to December 2001.