DARCHINYAN KO?S MIJARES AND VOWS REVENGE AGAINST DONAIRE
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 02 Nov 2008
IBF super flyweight champion Vic Darchinyan proved he had every right to shoot his mouth off by vowing to break WBC/WBA champion Cristian Mijares by doing just that in stunning fashion at the Home Depot Center in Carson City, California.
www.insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports monitored the "live" coverage on the Internet.
With his overpowering performance Darchinyan now holds three titles with only WBO champion Fernando Montiel standing in the way of a clean sweep at 115 pounds.
Mijares, a heavy favorite walked into the ring all smiles but before the end of the opening round Darchinyan ? an Australian of Armenian heritage wiped the smile off his face as he dropped him with a thundering left in an explosive opening round that established the tone of the fight and Darchinyan?s domination of Mijares.
Darchinyan, a southpaw like Mijares connected with some good body shots and appeared to be out-boxing Mijares in round four as he kept his distance befoe charging in to land flurries. A select group of three boxing writers in the press box had Darchinyan ahead 40-35 at the end of four rounds on the excellent coverage by Showtime.
Mijares showed some signs of a comeback in round five in an otherwise flat performance when he connected with a couple of solid combinations forcing Darchinyan to back off. The Mexican appeared to be waiting for Darchinyan to make a mistake but that didn?t happen and at the end of round six it was a shutout on the unofficial cards in the press box, 60-53.
Mijares continued to get tagged by the powerful left hand of Darchinyan who kept scoring as the Mexican tried to showboat his way out of a predicament. It didn?t bother Darchinyan neither did it work, as the 'Raging Bull? continued to rage on before a stunned crowd of predominantly Mexican and Hispanic fight fans.
The eighth round was pivotal and Mijares, obviously realizing he was way behind on points stepped up the tempo and landed a few more punches that enabled him to steal the round for a press box scorecard of 79-72.
Then came the dramatic ending just like the beginning as Darchinyan hammered Mijares with a thundering left-right combination that sent the Mexican crashing into the ropes giving referee Dr. Lou Moret no choice but to call off the demolition at 3:00 minutes of round nine as Mijares was out, badly hurt and lying underneath the ropes.
With the smashing win Darchinyan whose only loss was a fifth round knockout at the hands of Nonito ?The Filipino Flash? Donaire on July 7, 2007 when Donaire took his IBF and IBO titles, improved to 31-1-1 with 25 knockouts.
Drachinyan immediately called out his pet peeve, Donaire, who later in the exciting weekend of boxing scored a 6th round TKO over game South African challenger Moruti Mthalane in a mandatory title bout at the Mandalay Bay Resort Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in a fight telecast by Solar Sports over CS/9.
Darchinyan vowed ?I will destroy Donaire, even easier than I beat Mijares? pointing out that he kept his promise to destroy Mijares and prove all the writers who picked Mijares, wrong.
Darchinyan recalled ?I said I would show my skills and power and knock him out and I kept my promise.?
At the time of the stoppage all three judges had Darchinyan ahead 79-72 in agreement with the press box which sometimes doesn?t happen, proving just how dominant Darchinyan was, making it easy to score the fight.
The 27 year old Mijares looked uninspiring and out of sync and basically fought the wrong kind of fight by electing to wait for Darchinyan to make a mistake and then trying to trade punches with the Aussie in a battle he was never going to win.
With the loss Mijares dropped to 36-4-2, 14 KO?s in the process suffering his first defeat since 2002 and being dropped only for the second time in his career.
Darchinyan?s promoter Gary Shaw who also loves to talk said Darchinyan was willing fight anyone in the world ? even Oscar De La Hoya at 152 pounds as though taking a dig at Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao who didn?t renew Shaw's contract as promoter after two fights and will fight De La Hoya at 147 pounds on December 6 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Top photo: Vic Darchinyan, left, of Armenia, left, knocks down Cristian Mijares, of Mexico, during the first round of their boxing bout Saturday, Nov. 1, 2008, in Carson, Calif. Darchinyan won in the ninth round. (AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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