DONAIRE LAUGHS OFF DARCHINYAN’S CLAIM THAT HE’S SCARED OF HIM
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 07 Mar 2010
WBA super flyweight interim champion Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire has laughed off claims by Armenian-born Australian Vic Darchinyan that he (Donaire) is scared to face him in a rematch.
Darchinyan made the claim after scoring a twelve round unanimous decision over gallant but inexperienced Mexican Rodrigo Guerrero who was fighting outside his country for the very first time in Rancho Mirage, California.
Guerrero who had a record of 13-1-1 going into the fight was coming off a KO win over unheralded Rey Lopez last December 18. Prior to that he won a unanimous eight round decision over Luis Maldonado, the same fighter who was pulverized by Donaire and lost by an 8th round TKO in an IBF/IBO flyweight title bout in December 2007.
Guerrero also won a twelve round split decision over journeyman Juan Alberto Rosas to grab the WBC Continental Americas title on July 26, 2008. Rosas in turn had lost an eight round unanimous decision to Filipino southpaw AJ “Bazooka” Banal on May 5, 2007.
While Darchinyan, who improved his record to 34-2-1 with 27 knockouts, dominated the fight and won handily on the scorecards of all three judges. Marty Denkin scored it a shutout - 120-108, CJ Ross 118-110 and Max De Luca117-111.
Darchinyan hammered Guerrero with a variety of punches but he failed to drop him let alone knock him out despite his vaunted punching power.
Dr. Ed De La Vega who was at the fights quoted Guerrero as saying "I thought I lost, but I did really good. Now people will know who I am and I did not come here to lose or fall. I thought the fight was close and the head butts did most of the damage. He did not really hurt me.”
In a post fight interview Darchinyan for his part said “I respect how he took punches. I couldn't believe how he took punches. He kept coming back. I respect him. He's good. I thought I was going to stop him. I gave him good punches but I couldn't."
The 34 year old Australian who suffered a one-punch knockout that sent him reeling across the ring in a daze in the 5th round in a title fight on July 7, 2007 in which Darchinyan lost both his IBF and IBO flyweight titles to Donaire in the “Knockout of the Year, ” claimed in a post fight interview with Steve Farhood of Showtime that he thinks Donaire is scared to give him a rematch.
Darchinyan said “He's scared. Here are two belts. If you already knocked him out, why not come and get these two belts. I don't want to mention his name anymore. It's not fair. I want to move up and fight better champions."
Donaire told us he keeps talking “but there’s no offer on the table and Cameron Dunkin (Donaire’s manager) knows that I’m moving up in weight and I’m not looking back. I announced let’s make it happen but they didn’t. I said I’ll fight him because I want those two belts that he’s holding” after Donaire took the two belts Darchinyan held before, away from him.
At the same time Donaire who is growing and has had problems making the super flyweight limit told us he has his eyes set on WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel or WBC champion Hozumi Hasegawa who face- off in a unification bout in Japan on April 30 in Tokyo.
Donaire said that should Hasegawa win “I am willing to go out there because I want that belt.”
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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