THE man in the corner of Aussie slugger Vic Darchinyan believes his prized fighter will need just five rounds to clinch the vacant IBO super-flyweight title tonight.
Darchinyan, who crashed to his first career loss in the US in July, will be looking to reignite his career when he hops in the ring with Filipino Federico Catubay at Auburn RSL.
And trainer Billy Hussein, who watched his older brother Hussein Hussein knock out the same Catubay in February last year, has no doubts a pumped-up Darchinyan will waste no time stamping his authority.
Amazingly, the fact Darchinyan is expected to blow away the blond-haired Catubay so easily forced TAB Sportsbet not to bother with a market.
“Vic’s a genuine $1.01 chance while Federico’s $101,” TAB Sportsbet’s Glenn Munsie.
“We usually operate on world title fights, but in this case it wasn’t worth it. I don’t want to disrespect Federico, but Vic will win and win easily.”
Hussein said Darchinyan had bounced back physically and mentally after his shock loss to Nonito Donaire on a Showtime production in front of millions of fight fans four months ago.
He said the 31-year-old Darchinyan had a punch that could drop any opponent in the super-flyweight division, including Catubay.
“Vic has come up against undefeated fighters in the past with great records and knocked them out, and it will be no different on Saturday night,” said Hussein, prior to last night’s official weigh-in.
“Trainers hate making predictions, but I think Vic will end things by the fifth round. Having said that, he’s prepared to fight 12 solid rounds.
“I watched Federico fight my brother last year and he was aggressive and came to fight.”
Hussein said should everything go to plan, Darchinyan was a chance to fight on the same card as Aussie brawler Danny Green in the US on December 1.
The Perth-based Green arrived in Sydney yesterday ahead of his fight with IBO light-heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver.
