FLYWEIGHT TITLIST DARCHINYAN TO FIGHT DONAIRE ON OCT. 7
By Dan Rafael

ESPN
Aug. 21, 2006

Flyweight titlist Vic Darchinyan, the power puncher extraordinaire,
will make his fifth defense against Glenn Donaire on Oct. 7, promoter
Gary Shaw told ESPN.com Monday night.

Darchinyan

The fight will be the co-featured bout on the Showtime-televised card
headlined by the previously announced rubber match between lightweight
world champion Diego "Chico" Corrales (40-3, 33 KOs) and Joel Casamayor
(33-3-1, 20 KOs).

A formal news conference announcing the card is scheduled for Wednesday
at host site Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

Darchinyan (26-0, 21 KOs), a 30-year-old Armenian based in Australia,
had expected to face Argentina’s Omar Narvaez in a title unification
match.

After agreeing to the fight, Narvaez backed out, angering Shaw,
who recently went to Argentina to make the deal. The title fight
was contingent upon Narvaez defeating mandatory challenger Rexon
Flores on Aug. 5. However, after Narvaez won a lopsided decision,
Shaw said he received an e-mail from a Narvaez representative saying
that there had been a change of plans and that Narvaez would instead
stay in Argentina for a different fight in the fall.

The 26-year-old Donaire (16-2-1, 9 KOs) is 3-0-1 since suffering a
surprising first-round TKO loss to Z Gorres on the Erik Morales-Manny
Pacquiao I undercard on March 19, 2005, in Las Vegas.

"Glenn took the Gorres fight on short notice, and I don’t think that
it is indicative of who Glenn is," Shaw said. "He is a very skilled
fighter, but I recognize that Vic Darchinyan throws bricks and there
is not anyone he can’t take out with one punch. Glenn will have
to fight smart and box, and shoot his shots down the middle to be
competitive. If he does that, Vic will be in for a very tough fight."

Shaw said that while Darchinyan is disappointed about not being able
to lure another champion into the ring, he is excited about facing
Donaire, a native of the Philippines living in California.

"When I called him [in Australia] to talk to him about the fight,
all he asked me was, ‘Will this guy give me competition, because all
I want are competitive fights,’" Shaw said. "Vic wants to fight the
other champions, but we can’t make them fight Vic. We will still
try to fight Narvaez and the other champions, [Lorenzo] Parra and
the champion from Thailand [Pongsaklek Wonjongkam]. In the meantime,
Donaire and Vic will make a good fight."

Darchinyan and Donaire fought on the same card March 3 in Chumash,
Calif. Darchinyan stopped Diosdado Gabi in the eighth round to retain
his title. Donaire was held to a majority draw in a six-round fight
against Jose Albuquerque.

Donaire watched Darchinyan fight in the main event and told his
manager, Cameron Dunkin, that he wanted to fight Darchinyan.

"He had asked for this fight," Dunkin said. "Darchinyan is a tough,
hard-punching guy. We have a lot of respect for him. But my guy
can really fight and he has been waiting for this opportunity for a
long time, and he’s not going to blow it. He’s really excited about
the fight."

Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com.