ARMEANIAN STREAK
Sydney MX (Australia)
June 20, 2006 Tuesday
SYD Edition
World champion boxer Vic Darchinyan struggles for recognition in his
own country, but he is quickly gaining a following overseas
Vic Darchinyan has compiled one of the great streaks in Australian
boxing, but he arrived home from his latest conquest two weeks ago
to little fanfare in his adopted nation.
Armenian-born Darchinyan extended his perfect sequence of knockouts in
world title fights to five with his eighthround stoppage of previously
unbeaten Mexican Luis Maldonado in Las Vegas.
The exciting southpaw’s "warrior" style earned him plenty of fans in
the US and delighted promoters.
But when the IBF and IBO champion arrived home at Sydney airport
there were only a couple of reporters and no television cameras or
fans to meet him.
The scene was in contrast to the throngs that met former junior
welterweight world champion Kostya Tszyu on his early morning returns
from many overseas conquests.
"Maybe it’s because there’s not too much advertising or too much
media involved," Darchinyan said.
"But my promoters and (US pay TV network) Showtime told me ‘your style
is very exciting, everyone wants you, they’d like to watch you again’."
Darchinyan’s fight was promoted to main event status after the
cancellation of the lightweight world title bout between Diego Corrales
and Jose Luis Castillo.
"The Mexicans didn’t return their tickets after the Corrales-Castillo
fight was cancelled – they knew I was fighting a Mexican," he said.
"They kept supporting a Mexican and after they saw my style they
started supporting me and said ‘you’re a great fighter, we like your
style, you are a warrior’.
"I think everything depends on advertising.
"I’ve already (lived) nearly six years in Australia and I haven’t
lost and I’ve fought in many Jeff Fenech fight nights, but I can still
see there are still not big crowds supporting me because maybe people
don’t know about me."
Fenech, Darchinyan’s trainer, said seeing his charge come home to so
little recognition was painful.
"It’s terrible, it’s just typical of Australia," Fenech said.
"What (else) can the guy do? He’s beaten everybody, he’s undefeated,
he’s challenged everybody he’s a great kid."
Darchinyan was boosted by the strong support of fight fans of Armenian
extraction in Las Vegas.
And he anticipated even greater backing from the Armenian community in
the US for his next bout against WBO champion Omar Narvaez in either
August or September.
"I think maybe 1500 Armenians came from Los Angeles, it was good,
because we didn’t have time for much advertising in Los Angeles,"
said Darchinyan, who spent a few days sparring there before heading
to Las Vegas.
"Next time it will be 10,000 to 15,000. Here (in Australia) they have
30,000 to 40,000 Armenians; in America, one and a half million.
"Armenians here and the Australian community are starting to like me
and support me."
Darchinyan had words of warning for his next opponent, likely knock-out
candidate No.6: he said he was continuing to improve because he was
getting stronger and punching harder.