Darchinyan Demolishes Arce

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DARCHINYAN DEMOLISHES ARCE

In a grudge match that had been building for two years, WBC, WBA and IBF Super Flyweight Champion Vic Darchinyan brutally thrashed Jorge Arce for eleven one-sided rounds before scoring a stoppage victory.

Darchinyan was the clear favorite heading in, having crushed Cristian Mijares in November and due to the fact that it was Arce who was moving up in weight, but the way he so thoroughly dominated his rival was impressive. Aside from a wild third round in which he briefly stunned the champion, Arce was never in the fight and shocked the world simply by staying on his feet.

Arce had to feel he was in for the toughest fight of his career as he headed into the ring without the usual theatrics that have come to be associated with him. While he did sport a sucker in his mouth and cowboy hat on his head, there was no horse or motorcycle to carry him to ringside. Darchinyan, for his part, is as serious a boxer as exists in the sport today and coldly stared Arce down during Referee Dr. Lou Moret’s instructions.

The bout was billed as “Explosive” and took only half a minute to begin erupting as Darchinyan tagged Arce with a solid straight left hand to the head that sent the challenger stumbling aside. Arce must have felt the power because he tried to box and keep his distance from the champion for the most part until running into a left hand. Arce scored with a left hook that made Darchinyan clap his gloves together, then a straight right hand, but Vic quickly stood him up with a counter uppercut. Darchinyan started landing hard straight lefts that shook Arce up but didn’t subdue his bravado. With a cut under his left eye, Arce walked after Darchinyan following the bell and grabbed his crotch before Moret sent him back to his own corner.

Darchinyan uncoiled his right hook to begin round two, using it to set up a big left uppercut across Arce’s jaw against the ropes. After taking two left hands to the head, Arce tried to wrangle Darchinyan up by the head, only to be pushed away. The Armenian fans, while outnumbered by the Mexican contingent, began to loudly voice their approval of Darchinyan as the champion landed another booming straight left. Another straight left through the guard snapped Arce’s head back. Darchinyan then followed up with a right hook, but Arce countered with a left hook to back Darchinyan off at the bell, ending a brutal three minutes for the challenger.

Round three began like the previous two as Darchinyan slammed Arce’s head back into the ropes with his straight left. Tired of playing punching bag, Arce went after Darchinyan and scored with a left hook but ate an uppercut. Darchinyan went for a big left hand, but Arce countered with an even bigger left hook that instantly stunned Darchinyan. The crowd went wild as Arce fired away with both hands, yet Darchinyan kept punching with him, taking a straight right hand. An uppercut helped Darchinyan regain his form, then Arce walked right into a right hook square on the back of the head. Moret had to break the fighters and warn them to stop wrestling as the bout began getting out of control. Darchinyan then popped Arce with a smacking straight left hand to the mouth, but Arce responded by nodding his head. Arce scored with a right-left combination, but Darchinyan pulled his head down and popped him with another uppercut. Arce continued firing back, landing a left-right combination, followed by a right hand to the mouth, and perhaps doing enough to edge the round.

Thirty seconds into round four, Arce scored with another left hook that knocked Darchinyan back. Moments later, Darchinyan one upped him with a ripping left across the mouth. Arce tried to take his attack to the body but caught another left to the head. The brawling picked up again as Arce knocked Darchinyan’s head back with a straight right before following up with two more right hands to the head of the champion. When attempting another, Arce walked into a monstrous uppercut to the jaw that doubled him over and had him clinging onto Darchinyan’s waist to stay on his feet. Moret struggled to get the stunned Arce off of Darchinyan, and, when the action resumed, the champion again stood Arce up with a hellacious uppercut to the jaw. Arce backed away along the ropes and immediately looked to hold when Darchinyan approached. After taking another uppercut, Arce nodded and beckoned Darchinyan on for more, almost daring him to finish the deed. Two more uppercuts followed, but Arce kept firing back with left hooks and miraculously survived the round.

Arce started winging shots from both hands to open the fifth round but walked into a left hand to the head for his troubles. The challenger fought pretty well for most of the round until taking another straight left hand directly on the chin. Arce’s response was to gesture to his chin, daring Darchinyan to deal more punishment, to which the champion obliged with another combination. With under ten seconds to go, Darchinyan ripped Arce with another big uppercut, then a five-punch combination that knocked the challenger’s head about. They brawled briefly through the bell, but Moret quickly regained control and sent each man his separate way.

After being warned for pushing down on Arce’s head in round six, Darchinyan pounded his gloves together and assumed the spread-armed, stalking offense that is his trademark. He knocked Arce back into the ropes with a straight left to the head, and a firefight ensued that ended with Arce spiraling out of control, halfway through the ropes. Darchinyan moved to hit him in that position, but Moret, realizing it had resulted from a shove, stopped him from doing so. A round of right hooks landed on Arce’s head as his situation began looking hopeless. Darchinyan showed his toughness by absorbing a low blow that was ignored by Moret, walking it off and stuffing Arce with an uppercut in return. A straight left to the head hurt Arce moments before the bell, but Darchinyan failed to put him away.

As bad as he was being punished, Arce never quit punching, landing a good left hook on Darchinyan against the ropes in round seven, followed by an uppercut. In the middle of the round, they slugged it out in the center of the ring, with Darchinyan’s shots doing more damage. From there, Darchinyan started hammering away at Arce with huge combinations to the head and even a few hard shots to the body. After some particularly brutal head shots, Arce began literally staggering around the ring on one leg, yet somehow he made it out of the round.

Darchinyan continued to beat on Arce in round eight, though he slowed down a bit, perhaps accepting that he couldn’t knock his man out. In round nine, Darchinyan held Arce by the back of the head in order to land a blow, drawing a warning from Moret as Arce walked away, holding the back of his head in agony, blood coming from behind the ear opposite where he was hit. Arce came out looking for blood, and they slugged it out briefly, until Moret lectured both about roughhousing. Darchinyan nearly took Arce’s head off with two huge left hands before the bell. Bleeding from behind the head and under his right eye, Arce ate a hard three-punch combination to the mouth midway through round ten and responded with a nod. Darchinyan followed up with a straight left and an uppercut to the head of Arce, who could do nothing but take the shots. He beckoned Darchinyan on for more and took a horrendous right hook across the face as well.

So bad were Arce’s legs by the eleventh round that he staggered three-fourths of the way across the ring after a missed hook. Darchinyan spread his arms wide and stepped forward as if to offer Arce a free shot, adding a bit of insult to the accumulated injury. Darchinyan bounced Arce like a pinball with combinations to the head, eventually knocking him forward so that his torso went through the ropes. Arce complained to Moret, who assured him that he had been punched, as blood began pouring from the challenger’s right eye. An uppercut and a right hook froze Arce momentarily, and, even though Darchinyan missed most of the follow-up shots, Arce still collapsed onto his hands and knees, getting his throat hung up on the bottom strand in the process. Arce bounced back up, and Moret ruled it a slip, though it was clear the challenger had been hurt. Arce kept wiping at his bloodied eye amidst taking punches, yet he remained on his feet and periodically beckoned Darchinyan on for more. He made it to the bell and even had a few words for the champion afterward but returned to his corner a battered man.

Though Arce assured his corner he could finish the last round, the ringside doctor took a stand, stepping in and stopping the fight, realizing that the challenger had taken far too much punishment to be subjected to another three minutes of the same. Arce somehow had the energy to complain about Darchinyan’s dirty tactics while having cuts around both of his eyes treated and a cut on the back of his head inspected. He put up a great effort, but stunning Darchinyan in the third round probably did him more bad than good in the long run as it proved he had a puncher’s chance and thus prevented the fight from being stopped sooner.

As for Darchinyan, the fight that makes most sense now is a rematch with IBF Flyweight Champion Nonito Donaire, who knocked Darchinyan out in 2007, but Darchinyan’s promoter Gary Shaw immediately shot down any chance of that fight happening when asked about it. Shaw was Donaire’s promoter at the time of the fight but has since parted ways with the Filipino flyweight, and Shaw appears unwilling to reward Donaire’s disloyalty with a title shot. Unfortunately, that is boxing politics, which often keeps great fights from happening. Darchinyan has other options, but he’ll have to move up in weight to realize most of the big money fights out there.

DeMARCO STOPS KID DIAMOND

On the undercard, lightweight contender Antonio DeMarco scored the biggest win of his young career when he stopped Almazbek Raiymkulov, better known as Kid Diamond, after nine terrific rounds of action in a real fight fan’s fight.

After a very competitive and well boxed first round, Kid Diamond and DeMarco bumped heads at the bell, resulting in a cut over Kid Diamond’s right eye. Raiymkulov bounced back well though, scoring with enough right hands to take the second round and even up the fight.

DeMarco’s power punching carried the day in round three as he hit Kid Diamond with straight left hands and snapping uppercuts. Raiymkulov didn’t take long to answer, however, as he began the fourth round by drilling DeMarco with right hands and uppercuts of his own, and, though DeMarco came back with several rallies of his own, Kid Diamond landed the better punches to again even up the fight.

Early in round five, Raiymkulov began bleeding from the nose, which visibly bothered him the rest of the fight. He fought well through most of the round, but DeMarco countered effectively, snapping Kid Diamond’s head up with a beautifully timed right hook just before the bell. Round six was another tactically fought round that could have gone either way, though DeMarco seemed to land more power shots.

Round seven saw both men landing hard punches on each other, with DeMarco’s better boxing and counter punching giving him the edge once again. Raiymkulov made a great strategic move in round eight by letting his hands go for nearly the entire three minutes rather than let the fight slowly slip away. The result was that he got in some good shots on DeMarco against the ropes.

Just as Kid Diamond had him on the run for most of the eighth round, DeMarco turned the tables by going after his opponent with straight left hands to the head and body in the ninth. Two jarring straight lefts moved Raiymkulov back, but Kid Diamond fought back valiantly and gave the crowd a show. With fifteen seconds to go, DeMarco drilled Kid Diamond with a straight left and a right hook that backed him to the ropes. Sensing his man was ready to go, DeMarco followed up with a one-two and a hard right hook across the jaw. A straight left and another right hook followed as Raiymkulov went defenseless against the ropes but never went down. The bell saved Kid Diamond, though he looked in bad shape as he headed to his corner, his nose visibly contorted.

Kid Diamond shook his head and complained as his corner tried to remove his mouthpiece, obviously in pain. The ringside doctor ordered the mouthpiece to come out and took a look before announcing that he was calling the fight off. Raiymkulov told his corner he didn’t want to risk serious injury, but the corner men seemed to be ignoring him and urging him to fight. As the crowd grew restless, across the ring, DeMarco was complaining about Kid Diamond being allowed extra time, the one-minute rest period clearly having expired. Referee Jerry Cantu and the doctor stopped the fight, and DeMarco was awarded the stoppage victory.

The win was particularly significant for DeMarco since Kid Diamond’s only previous loss had been to current Lightweight Champion Nate Campbell. He also earned a draw against Joel Casamayor, the former linear Lightweight Champion, in a fight many thought Kid Diamond deserved to win. Competing in boxing’s best division, DeMarco needed a big victory to put himself in line for some of the top dogs at lightweight, and he delivered.

It was a solid fight that featured real boxing skills, several turns and some gritty final rounds that resulted in a stoppage victory and likely a broken nose on the part of Raiymkulov.