Darchinyan wants a taste of Punch
December 20, 2004

Sydney Morning Herald , Australia
Dec 20 2004

Australia’s new flyweight world boxing champion Vic Darchinyan may
well go from receiving a pittance to a big payday for a proposed
first title defence against highly touted Brian Viloria in Hawaii.

Darchinyan, who moved to Australia and took out citizenship after
representing Armenia at the 2000 Olympics, returned to Sydney yesterday
from Florida where he took the International Boxing Federation title
with an 11th-round stoppage of previously unbeaten Colombian Irene
Pacheco.

“I always believed I could become world champion,” said Darchinyan,
who described himself as “an Armenian Australian”.

His trainer, Jeff Fenech, suggested economics would probably result
in Darchinyan’s first title occurring overseas.

Fenech revealed the 28-year-old fighter would probably finish up with
less than $20,000 from last week’s fight.

He said Darchinyan, and super-middleweight Danny Green, who
also received a small amount for his fight against Markus Beyer
in Germany last year, accepted small purses just to get a title
shot. However, Fenech indicated Darchinyan would make considerably
more for fighting Viloria, who has won all 16 of his professional
fights since representing the United States in the light-flyweight
division at the Sydney Olympics.

Advertisement AdvertisementFenech said a Florida-based promoter
who staged last Thursday’s fight wanted to match Darchinyan with
24-year-old Viloria, nicknamed the “Hawaiian Punch”, in a bout which
would be sure to attract the interest of American television.

“They [the promoter] are already talking about fighting in March in
Hawaii against Brian Viloria,” Fenech said. “They’ve made us an offer,
but now Viloria has to say yes.”

Fenech was confident about Darchinyan’s prospects against Viloria,
having seen his man spar the Hawaiian in his lead-up to the fight
against Pacheco. “We’d have no problem with Viloria but a fight is
different to sparring,” Fenech said.