CATUBAY FACES DARCHINYAN TODAY; AIMS TO BECOME RP'S 5TH WORLD CHAMP
By Salven L. Lagumbay
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 20 Oct 2007
Filipino Federico 'Magnifico' Catubay will attempt to become the country's fifth reigning world title holder today when he faces Australia's Vic Darchinyan for the vacant IBO superflyweight title at the Auburn RSL Club in Auburn (Sydney), New South Wales, Australia.
If successful in today's battle, Catubay (20-13-3, 11 KO's) will join the ranks of IBF minimumweight champion Florante Condes, IBF/IBO flyweight champ Nonito Donaire Jr, WBO bantam king Gerry Penalosa and WBO minimumweight ruler Donnie Nietes.
It will be an uphill climb though for the former Philippine flyweight champion Catubay, who fights out of Cebu.
"I want to put on a good fight. I've shown my respect here today to Federico. He says he's going to knock me out in round one and send me into an early retirement. His talk only motivates me more," said Darchinyan (28-1, 22 KO's) at the press conference for the fight.
Catubay had earlier indicated he has seen enough weaknesses of Darchinyan during the fight with Nonito Donaire, and that he will duplicate all the good moves that the latter did against the Australia-based fighter.
"I am going to retire him. He thinks I'm an easy opponent because of my record. He's making the mistake of choosing me as his comeback opponent," Catubay earlier said in an interview before flying to Australia with manager Sammy Gello-ani.
"I can't see Federico going the distance on Saturday. In fact, I can't see anybody in the super flyweight division going the distance with Vic,'' Hussein told Australia's Daily Telegraph. "He's too strong and powerful and the knockdown has only made him more focused.''
Gello-ani, however, stressed that Donaire had passed on to him some tips on how to beat Darchinyan when they met recently at the Mandalay Bay for the Pacquiao-Barrera fight, and that he has already relayed the information to Catubay.
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