Ask a preacher about Armenia and he might say that its borders once held Mount Ararat, where the Bible says Noah’s Ark landed on dry ground, after a good long soaking. Ask a businessman about Armenia and he might say that she is a major exporter of cut diamonds. Ask boxing fans about Armenia and they’ll say that her greatest export is Vic “Raging Bull” Darchinyan. Or, at least they should.
The 28-0 (22 KOs) flyweight will defend his IBF title on July 7, 2007 against Nonito Donaire 17-1 (10) in Bridgeport Connecticut. This will be Darchinyan’s seventh world title defense.
Unlike most fighters with high knockout percentages, Darchinyan earned most of his decision victories early in his career with three of his first five fights decided by the judges. Impressively, the last man to go the distance with him was Alejandro Montiel.
In August of 2003.
Watch a Darchinyan fight and you’ll soon see that this rugged 31-year-old has reduced the sweet science to hammer and anvil simplicity, i.e., the key to punching hard is to throw hard punches, and the key to knockouts is to throw hard punches until your opponent falls down.
After first putting on boxing gloves at age eight, the future world champion compiled an impressive 152-18 record as an amateur with his 105 KOs being a not so subtle hint at what was to come.
While competing in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney Australia, the tough Armenian slugger caught the eye of former four-weight champion, Jeff Fenech, who subsequently became his trainer. After only four years, Darchinyan stepped into the ring against undefeated (30-0 at the time) Irene Pacheco. In a tough fight that had Pacheco suffering a cut on the bridge of his nose (accidental head butt), losing three points for low blows, and getting knocked down once in the tenth round and twice in the eleventh, Darchinyan stopped Pacheco with 44 seconds left in round eleven.
Darchinyan’s reign of terror over the division has continued through to his most recent fight, a one sided, and ultimately scary, TKO over former IBF light-flyweight champion, Victor Burgos in March of this year. The brave Burgos entered the ring with a record of 39-14-3 (23) and no idea what was about to happen to him. After over eleven rounds of valiantly standing up to Darchinyan’s assault, Burgos dropped to the canvas halfway through round twelve, though not from an obvious punch. Once he had beat the count and the referee resumed the action, Burgos stumbled to the ropes and the referee stopped the bout at 1:27 of round twelve.
Burgos fell in and out of consciousness and was rushed to the hospital where a blood clot was removed from his brain. He has since awakened from a medically induced coma and continued to improve.
A naturalized Australian citizen, Vic, whose Armenian first name is Vakhtang, has a restaurant in Sydney called “The Raging Bull.” As this some-time restaurateur has raged through the flyweight division, he has been trying to stoke a rivalry and cook up a fight with former WBC light-flyweight and WBC interim flyweight holder, Jorge Arce. An April 14 loss to Cristian Mijares has slowed Arce’s, momentum, and marketability, leaving Darchinyan to find other pots to stir.
Fluent in Armenian, Russian, and English, Darchinyan leaves any erudite notions behind when he enters the ring. A promoter’s dream (Gary Shaw, in this case), he steps through the ropes with knockout on his mind and the style to get it done. Aggressive from the opening bell, he tenderizes the body, batters the head, and generally wreaks havoc with both hands. Beyond that, he has the distinction of being a power punching southpaw. While most lefties tend to take advantage of their unorthodox stance to box their opponents and mesmerize with angles and counterpunches, Darchinyan takes advantage of his leftie stance by throwing bombs. Thereby relying on the old saw that the punch you don’t see is the one that knocks you out.
While critics will say, correctly, that he tends to load up on his shots, often limits his output to one or two punches at a time, or that he too often ignores defense by walking straight in with his gloves down and elbows out, exposing his chin and his ribs. So far, it hasn’t mattered much.
We shall see how much it matters to Nonito Donaire, this Saturday, as he attempts to avenge his brother, Glen Donaire’s loss to Darchinyan in 2006.
