DARCHINYAN BREAKS INTO THE RING POUND-FOR-POUND LIST
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 18 Feb 2009
Vic Darchinyan is now rated No. 10 by The Ring magazine in its Top Ten pound-for-pound list. He stayed on the exclusive list for just two weeks now.
On February 7, 2009, Darchinyan successfully defended his championship against Jorge Arce, winning by TKO in the 11th round. Darchinyan led by a large margin on all three scorecards when the fight was stopped at the end of the eleventh canto because of several bad cuts on Arce?s face.
The Raging Bull is presently the undisputed superflyweight champion holding the three major belts together, the WBC, WBA, and IBF. However, the WBO title is held by Fernando Montiel of Mexico while The Ring championship is still vacant.
Darchinyan is best remembered as the Armenian-born Australian boxer whom Nonito Donaire, Jr. knocked out in the fifth round in one of the greatest upset in boxing history. The eventful occasion happened on July 7, 2007 in Connecticut, with a single left hook of Donaire to the face of Darchinyan made him lost both the IBF and IBO flyweight titles. It was the only blemish in his record of 32-1-1 (26 KOs).
Darchinyan later won the vacant IBO super flyweight title, outpointing then stopping Federico Catubay in 12 rounds. He voluntarily relinquished the IBO title prior to fighting in an IBF eliminator.
In the IBF title eliminator, Darchinyan fought Z Gorres to a controversial split draw at the Waterfront Hotel in Cebu City. The final scores were 113-112 for Gorres, 114-112 for Darchinyan, and 113-113 for the draw. The fight was marred by pelting of water bottles, coins and other objects on the ring.
Darchinyan then fought in what most boxing experts regarded as a career-best performance, winning over the IBF junior bantamweight champion Dimitri Kirilov by a fifth round knockout.
Darchinyan fought WBC and WBA super flyweight champion Cristian Mijares in Carson, California and knocked out Mijares in the ninth round. He became the first fighter in history to unify the titles in the superflyweight class.
In The Ring pound-for-pound list, Manny Pacquiao stays at number one. He is followed by: 2. Juan Manuel Marquez, 3. Bernard Hopkins, 4. Israel Vasquez, 5. Shane Mosley, 6. Rafael Marquez, 7. Ivan Calderon, 8. Ricky Hatton, 9. Celestino Caballero, 10. Vic Darchinyan.
Pacquiao has stayed on the list for 272 weeks already, while Juan Manuel Marquez was ranked in the elite list for 101 weeks, while Hopkins stayed there for 141 weeks now.
The Ring champions are cruiserweight Tomasz Adamek, middleweight Kelly Pavlik, junior welterweight Ricky Hatton, lightweight Juan Manuel Marquez, junior featherweight Israel Vasquez, and junior flyweight Ivan Calderon. All the other weight divisions have vacant titles.
Top photo: Vic Darchinyan (L) mows down Arce at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA in his last fight to barge into Ring Magazine's pound-for-pound ranking.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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