Future opponents should be ready to take in that view of Vic Darchinyan.There are two golden rules in boxing: Keep your hands up and chin down.
If a young, aspiring boxer wants to work towards a world championship, he is taught to keep his hands on both sides of his head and throw counter punches from that position. But Vic Darchinyan lives in a parallel universe.
The undisputed champion in the super flyweight division continued the hottest streak in all of boxing by dismantling a tough Jorge Arce via 11th round TKO on Saturday night. And he did it his way; hands lows, chin up and just daring his opponent to hit him.
Darchinyan has the most unorthodox stance of any world champion I have seen. His shoulders are hunched over, his lead right hand is below his waist and his powerful left is cocked back ready to fire at any time. It's a recipe for disaster for most fighters, but not Darchinyan who is 32-1-1 with 26 KOs and holds wins over world class fighters such as Arce, Cristian Mijares and Dimitri Kirilov.
The Armenian-Australian showcased why he is one of the top-10 pound-for-pound fighters in the world with his dazzling quickness and lethal left hand. It's not often a man fighting at 115 pounds has a left hand powerful enough to drop middleweight, but Darchinyan certainly does.
The first round was a clinic as Darchinyan poked his head out of his akward stance, causing Arce to swing wildly for a knockout. The "Raging Bull" would then quickly step to his right and deliver a left uppercut right to the chin of Arce. The left uppercut landed all night for Darchinyan but he also showed he was not afraid to use his right hand.
Darchinyan has been criticized for focusing too much on throwing his left and not enough on throwing jabs and short hooks with his right. But on Saturday, he delivered beautiful combinations, mainly a right jab, left uppercut and even a left cross, right hook. Those two combinations, which consistently landed throughout the night, showed just how much Darchinyan has improved within two years.
By the time the second round ended, the champion had been so dominant that I seriously started considering moving him into the top-5 of my personal pound-for-pound rankings — but then round three happened.
Round three was the only round I scored for Arce and it was because Darchinyan got tempted into brawling with hard-hitting Mexican slugger. Arce had some great body shots in the round and Darchinyan later conceded that Arce did hit hard to the body. The third round is proof that even with his recent dominance, Darchinyan has a ways to go before he can be considered one of the top-5 boxers in the world.
The rest of the fight was a great display of speed and power from Darchinyan and also a frightening display of courage from Arce who probably should have thrown in the towel by the eighth or ninth round.
It seemed Arce had a chance to gain some momentum after the third round, but for some reason he kept circling to his right. By circling to his right he was walking right into Darchinyan's powerful left hand. His corner failed him by not instructing him to bail left after jumping inside.
Darchinyan proved when he is focused, he is one of the most dangerous boxers on the planet. After cementing himself as the king in the super flyweight division, he appears to be ready to move up to bantamweight or even junior featherweight.
Matches against Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez could solidify Darchinyan as one of the best boxers of this generation and a move up to featherweight where a challenge such as Chris John would be awaiting could definitely make him a legend.
2009 has already showcased two brilliant boxing clinics put on by Shane Mosley and now Vic Darchinyan. Two more great fights are scheduled for this Saturday with lightweight champion Nate Campbell taking on Ali Funeka and Sergio Martinez squaring off with Kermit Cintron.
The last two years have been a nice comeback for boxing and Darchinyan proved again Saturday why he is one of the fighters spearheading the revival.
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