The Age, Australia
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
Nov 26 2006
Darchinyan’s quandary: should I stay or should I go?
Email Print Normal font Large font Winsor Dobbin
November 26, 2006
VIC Darchinyan is perplexed by his options. Having vowed
to remain an Australian, our only world boxing champion has been
wooed by lucrative offers to base himself overseas permanently.
Darchinyan’s American promoter Gary Shaw has urged him to move to the
US to lift his profile in the most lucrative market in the world and
sign with either HBO or Showtime.
A group of influential Armenians has made him a massive offer to
return permanently to his homeland and fight under the Armenian flag.
Darchinyan has lived in Australia since the 2000 Sydney Olympics and
took out citizenship in 2004. He has been frustrated by a lack of
recognition here since winning the IBF and IBO world flyweight titles
and successfully defending them five times.
The tiny powerhouse, who is 27-0 with 21 wins inside the distance, is
one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world but there is no
Australian promoter with the financial muscle to put on unification
bouts against WBC champion Pongsaklek Wonjongkam or interim champion
Jorge Arce.
Despite resigning himself to fighting three or four times a year in
the US, Darchinyan and his fiancee Olga recently moved into a new
apartment in the Sydney suburb of Zetland. He is busy with what he
hopes will be the first in a chain of Vic’s Raging Bull cafes, so is
loath to uproot himself.
"I love living here in Australia and I hope the time will soon come
when all Australians learn to love me, too," he said. "All Australia
will be proud of me, but these things take time.
"Kostya Tszyu has told me it took several years for people to get to
know him. At the moment I’m not very popular here because people
haven’t seen me on TV.
"I think people love to see someone who is a good boxer who is also a
really big puncher and I am both of those things. I show nice style
and then knock them out and it is a pity that more people do not get
the chance to see it.
"Gary Shaw keeps telling me I should move to the US, but I’m happy to
live in Sydney and fight over there. I go over three or four weeks
before each fight and I fight three or four times a year, so I spend
enough time in the US.
"Life is good here. Beautiful. I do my job. I love it. I have a
future here."
But there is also the temptation of that big-money Armenian offer,
put together by politicians and businessmen when Darchinyan made a
recent trip back home.
He’s already been given a house, and land on which he will eventually
build a gymnasium to encourage young Armenian boxers, but the money
he was offered to return home and fight for Armenia blew him away.
"If I went back to Armenia I’d make a lot more money," he said.
"You wouldn’t believe how much I was offered. There are only two
Armenian-born world champions and I am in Australia and Arthur
Abraham is in Germany. The people there are very keen to have their
own world champion.
"People want to see me fight for Armenia. They want me to live there.
"I became world champion in Australia, Australia gave me opportunity
and I’m happy I’m an Australian world champion."
But a fight back home is definitely on the agenda.
"It is possible I could fight there, Gary Shaw would be happy to
co-promote, and many people are interested. Ideally I’d like to have
big fights in Sydney, Armenia and in Moscow before I retire. "
Multilingual and university educated, Darchinyan was treated like a
returning hero on his recent trip home, where he also intends to
eventually invest in a business.
Darchinyan will be on the road to the US again soon with a title
defence against formidable Mexican Victor Burgos, the former IBF
light-flyweight champion, scheduled for January 7 in Las Vegas.
"Christmas will be a little late for me this year," Darchinyan said.
"But I can celebrate after the fight."