KING KONG AGBEKO PROVES THEM ALL WRONG
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 12 Jul 2009
CANOGA PARK, CA -- The gods must be smiling on Ghana these days. First, they have Barack Obama visiting the country. That in itself is very significant for reasons obvious to everyone. After all the US President does not go around visiting other countries everyday.
Then tonight, their boxing idol, bantamweight Joseph King Kong Agbeko (yes that is his given name and not just a nickname) scored a giant win against Vic Darchinyan. Darchinyan was picked by many pundits to simply roll over the gentleman from Ghana.
And what a giant blow out!
Oh no, I do not mean the manner by which Agbeko destroyed the Armenia loudmouth the Bank Atlantic Center at Sunrise, Florida.
I mean the wrong picks by a great majority of experienced scribes who indicated that Darchinyan will no doubt beat Agbeko and grab his IBF title making him a three division champion. And with that remain as the main cash-cow of Gary Shaw, the ex-Nonito Donaire Jr., promoter.
Shades of the Manny Pacquiao-Lehlonoholo Ledwaba fight, isn’t it but only in reverse. Pacquiao was the challenger and Ledwaba the favored champion.
No one ever thought that Pacquiao who was then relatively unknown in the USA and a late substitute to boot, would end up with a great win just like Agbeko did tonight.
ShowTime, the people that put the fight on the tube made a Media Prediction Poll and asked some of the very best scribes in the country to give their insights on the Agbeko-Darchinyan fight.
Not to be out-done, FightHype.com did one too, albeit amongst the in-house staff. Twelve out of thirteen staff people picked the “raging bull”, Vic Darchinyan. Most said he will win by stoppage. Only one, Sandy Liptrot picked Agbeko and by a split decision.
On the ShowTime poll, only 6 out of the 28 picked Agbeko to win. Cozzone of FightNews, Slater of Eastside Boxing, Bourrrrrrelly of SX Fight, Alvarez of Diamond Boxing, Keisha of Boxing Empress and Scherer of Suite 101.
One of those on the poll said that the long lay-off of Agbeko due to health reasons and the comeback fights he had against fighters of poor records made him ill-prepared to take the power of Darchinyan. Another noted that Darchinyan’s “newly improved ability to evade punches” (which he did not have when he was badly KO’d by Donaire?) is a big plus.
No one seriously considered much less gave value to the reach advantage of the champion from Ghana. Or, his mental and physical fitness, let alone his heart and hunger to keep his title and pursue bigger and better things in life ahead. They felt the experience and the punching power of Darchinyan are enough and will spell the difference. They could not have been so wrong!
One even stated that Darchinyan being a “true pound-4-pound” fighter will eventually show up his wares and win via a TKO. But that was not the case as Agbeko placed Darchinyan where he truly belong,:-certainly not in the company of Pacquiao and Donaire.
Another writer vividly stated that Darchinyan’s punches will “separate Agbeko from his senses”. But now we know what happened. The brash talker, in spite of having weigh more than Agbeko at the weigh in yesterday ( 117.5 to 116.5 and 127 to 121 lbs at fight time) was not able to back up his supposedly suave swagger and ended up exactly in the same way where Nonito Donaire left him. Chuck up the second “L” on his record.
Another chose Darchinyan because he felt that “his confidence is at an all time high” following victories against the likes of Christian Mijares and Jorge Arce. But those guys are smaller than Agbeko. Besides, Darchinyan, unlike Pacquiao when he was going up the ranks, could not carry his power beyond 115 lbs.
In fact, inspite of going back to his amateur roots after the Donaire debacle, he has not changed his style a bit, He is still as awkward as ever. As early as round 1, he was cut on the left eye and in the succeeding rounds is bleeding in the mouth and nose as a result incessant rights from Agbeko. After round 10th, Darchinyan has cuts on both eyes and clearly losing the fight. The only bright spot for Darchinyan was a controversial knock down which appeared to have been a push. Certainly a clear mistake by referee Tommy Kimmons.
The scores were Judge Young 116-111, Judges Ross and Purnick 114-113 for a clear unanimous decision by Joseph Agbeko.
So what is now next for the formerly hot and “not so raging bull”?
Not much really unless perhaps Gary Shaw keeps Darchinyan at 115 lbs and negotiate a re-match with Nonito Donaire Jr. But knowing Shaw’s past history with Donaire, that is far from happening and that indeed is truly sad!
But if those involved will drop all their personal problems with each other behind and allow a Donaire-Darchinyan re-match to happen, the fight could be a classic that ESPN can repeatedly show in the future.
And, without a doubt, if a poll was again taken amongst those involved with the two polls conducted for the Agbeko-Darchinyan fight, Donaire will surely be the pick by everyone. No question about it!
With the win, Agbeko improved to 27-1- 0 (23KO) and Darchinyan back to the drawing board with a 32-2-1 (26).
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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