Vic Darchinyan has revealed that he aspires to take up MMA in the future, having been training in wrestling since childhood.
He joins many other boxers who have toyed with the idea, including the likes of David Haye and Kermit Cintron.
At the moment there is still a lot more money to be made in boxing, but the gap is closing rapidly, and the UFC now outsells all but the biggest fights on pay per view.
Speaking to Australian newspaper the Daily Telegraph, Darchinyan said:
“At the right time, I want to have a go at cage fighting. I’ve done wrestling since I was very young, so I believe it’s something I could compete at if I wanted to. My father was an Olympic wrestling coach for Armenia, so he was teaching me from the time I was very small. In a year or two, it’s something I’m definitely going to do.”
David Harrow, Pittsburgh PA: “I can’t see Darchinyan taking up MMA before he’s too old and past his best, he still has too much left to do in boxing, starting with a rematch against Nonito Donaire”
The rematch with Donaire should happen, although Donaire has been having trouble with his weight recently, so a move up might scupper that idea. I have to agree that Vic will probably wait until later in his career until making the switch for the simple reason that there is much more money in being a champion boxer than a new MMA fighter. When you consider even the best fighters in his weight class in MMA don’t make close to $100,000 per fight, it might be something to do when he’s retired form boxing.
Tony Vickers, Pittsburgh PA: “A lot of boxers talk about crossing over and the same with cage fighters, but none of them usually turn out to be much good when they do”
I’d have to agree with you so far Tony, although to be fair we haven’t seen elite athletes from either sport crossing over in their primes. Probably the most well known boxer who has crossed over so far is Ray Mercer, and of course at the age of 48 now, he isn’t exactly in his prime.
