ALLAN THE MAN

Australia-based Armenian Vic Darchinyan revealed that apart from avenging the most embarrassing loss of his career, he also wants to refute a particular praise about his Filipino tormentor.

Sunday morning (Manila Time) Darchinyan will meet Nonito “Filipino Flash” Donaire in a 10-round non-title Featherweight bout, six years after the two met in a fight that changed the course of both fighters in a more positive way.

Fully aware that he was on the phone with a Filipino writer, Darchinyan took the opportunity of sending a message to the countrymen of his upcoming opponent.

“I want to prove he is not the one everybody has been talking about. I want to prove to Filipinos he can never be a Manny Pacquiao and he’s overrated. I fought many Filipinos and you have so many great fighters. But I fought his brother, Z Gorres, Diosdado Gabi, I beat all of them,” Darchinyan told Solar Sports Desk.

July of 2007, Darchinyan failed to defend his flyweight championship when he got caught with a vicious counter left hook to face, a punch that saw the Armenian lurching around the ring that forced the referee to stop the match.

It was the 37-year-old Darchinyan’s first ever defeat, a loss that saw him surrender his International Boxing Federation (IBF) and International Boxing Organization (IBO) flyweight belts to Donaire.

Darchinyan said that immediately after the loss, he asked his promoter Gary Shaw to give him the rematch within three months.

The fight did not happen immediately but it still gave Darchinyan a lot of opportunities along the way as he was able to conquer marquee fighters namely Yhonny Perez, Tomas Rojas, Cristian Mijares and Jorge Arce.

Donaire meanwhile was also able to secure top caliber matches by facing and defeating Mexicans Arce and Fernando Montiel and popular Japanese champion Toshiaki Nishioka that made him a pound-for-pound entrant since losing to Cuban Guillermo Rigondeaux last April. 

At superflyweight, Darchinyan felt he was about to get that rematch when he heard Donaire’s fancy of becoming the first ever Filipino to be crowned undisputed champion.

“When I became undisputed champion I sent him a message. ‘Let’s fight. let’s fight again, let’s have a rematch. And his answer was ‘I already beat you why do I have to fight you?’, said Darchinyan “If you understand boxing you know the meaning of his answer. Why don’t you fight me? You wanted these three titles to become undisputed? He doesn’t want that because he does not want to be in the ring with me.”

While he admits he has already moved ahead of that knockout defeat to Donaire, Darchinyan still feels he was winning that fight and that he just got caught with a fluky blow.

“It was not him who was pushing me in the corner. I was the one pushing him and looking for a knockout. I jumped on a punch. Pacquiao was faster, stronger and was ready to knock Marquez out but he jumped into a punch, too. It happens in boxing,” said Darchinyan.

Darchinyan then said six years of waiting will not make him too eager and careless again once he brawls with Donaire come fight night in Corpus Christi, Texas.

“He beat me six years ago and you can say he can do it again. For me, it doesn’t matter because don’t forget, I am now at an age where I am much smarter,” said Darchinyan “I am not going to look for a knockout. I am not going to be on a rush. I’ll take my time and will break him with my punches.”

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