Sydney Morning Herald, Australia

Raging Bull is ready

March 26, 2005

Page Tools
Email to a friend Printer format
Bring it on: Vic Darchinyan in training at Jeff Fenech’s Marrickville gym
ahead of his bout against Mzukisi Sikali on Sunday night.
Photo: Craig Golding
Vic Darchinyan, regarded as the hardest puncher around, wants to add the IBO
to his IBF title, but that’s just the start of his ambitions, writes Brad
Walter.

Vic Darchinyan doesn’t like to make predictions about how long his
fights will last. “It is not good to say I am going to knock someone
out,” the IBF world flyweight champion said ahead of Sunday night’s
title unification bout against South Africa’s Mzukisi Sikali at the
State Sports Centre. “I look to finish as soon as possible. If I can
finish in 10 seconds, I will. My fitness is very good, but I don’t
look to be punching long distance. I go to kill.”

Having won 22 fights – 17 by KO – since moving to Sydney from Armenia
after the 2000 Olympics to train under Jeff Fenech, the record of
the undefeated Darchinyan speaks for itself.

“He’s so cocky that sometimes it’s scary,” Fenech says. “He comes
back after a round and says, ‘You want me to knock him [out] now? This
round, I finish?’.” Fenech says the 29-year-old Darchinyan is, pound
for pound, the hardest puncher in Australian boxing.

Having shed 8.5 kilograms in the past five weeks to get down to 50.8kg
for the fight, he can bench-press more than twice his own weight.

“He’s just so strong,” Fenech said. “If he hits anybody, they’re gone.
That’s it, fight over. He can knock anybody out.”

Darchinyan’s greatest victory to date was an 11th-round KO in December
of the previously unbeaten Irene Pacheco, who was making his seventh
defence of the IBF title, but the win was the culmination of 21 years’
preparation and more than 300 fights.

Considered a national hero in his native Armenia, Darchinyan took up
boxing at the age of eight and quickly discovered he was good at it.

“I loved it,” Darchinyan recalled. “I beat everyone in my city [of
Vanadzor] after a couple of months by knockouts, and I remember the
first time I fought as a 15-year-old all the kids wanted to fight
like me.”

Joining the international amateur circuit at the same age, he achieved
a record of 152 wins from 170 fights throughout Europe and the US but,
in the hope of attaining Olympic gold, resisted approaches to turn pro.

Although Darchinyan did not win a medal at Sydney 2000, Fenech said
the Armenian was a stand-out fighter at the Games and he invited him
to join his stable, which includes Nedal ‘Skinny’ Hussein and Lovemore
Ndou, who are on the undercard of Sunday night’s fight.

“I wanted to become an amateur champion and then a professional
champion, but it was not to be,” said Darchinyan, whose has the
nickname of Raging Bull.

“Now it doesn’t matter,” he said. “I am world champion in the IBF
and now I want to collect belts.”

Darchinyan said that when he has all the belts, he will “look to go
to bantamweight, which is two divisions up”.

First, however, Darchinyan has to overcome Sikali, the IBO flyweight
champion who is unbeaten since 1999. Trained by Harold Volbrecht,
who plotted Phillip Holiday’s career-ending defeat of Fenech in 1996,
Sikali boasts a record of 29 wins.

These include 17 victories by knockout, two draws and five losses
during a 36-fight career, and the South African has successfully
defended his title on three occasions.

Fenech said Sunday’s keenly awaited bout would undoubtedly be the
biggest test so far for Darchinyan.

But the southpaw, whose father, Rubik, will carry the IBF belt into
the ring, is extremely confident.

“He is a smart boxer,” Darchinyan said of his South African
opponent. “I have watched the videos and I can see that he is a
good mover.

“But I know in my head that I am much stronger than him and that I
am much smarter.

“I don’t think it will go the distance, but I don’t want to say I
will beat him easily.”