Brisbane Times, Australia
Oct 19 2007
Darchinyan ready for fight with Filipino
October 19, 2007 – 5:25PM
Former flyweight world champion Vic Darchinyan aims to re-establish
his championship credentials by defeating Filipino Federico Catubay
for the vacant IBO super flyweight boxing world title in Sydney on
Saturday night.
It will be the first time in six fights and almost 26 months the
Armenian-born power puncher has fought in his adopted homeland.
Darchinyan lost the IBF and IBO flyweight titles to another Filipino,
Nonito Donaire, back in July and covets a rematch with his conqueror.
Firstly, 31-year-old southpaw Darchinyan (28-1, 22 KOs) must overcome
Catubay 27, (20-13, 11 KOs).
Catubay, 27, boasts a win over former WBC light flyweight champion
Yo-Sam Choi, but has suffered seven KO losses, one of them against
Darchinyan’s stablemate Hussein Hussein.
"(My trainer) Billy (Hussein) told me when Hussy fought him, Catubay
wasn’t very well prepared. He’s seen a few of his fights since then
and says he is a better fighter," Darchinyan said.
Darchinyan’s last five fights were all in America, two of them in the
glamorous boxing heartland of Las Vegas, but he is quite happy to
fight in the more intimate environment of Auburn RSL.
"It’s nice to fight at home. It doesn’t matter how big or small the
place is," said Darchinyan, who won his only previous fight at the
venue.
While he won’t abandon his aggressive crowd-pleasing style,
Darchinyan is determined to eliminate the defensive lapse which
proved so costly against Donaire.
"We’ve talked a lot about defence and we have worked on my mistakes,"
Darchinyan said.
Billy Hussein said Darchinyan was holding his hands up high and was
showing a lot more patience and displaying more caution in throwing
his punches.
"He’s still going to be devastating, he still wants to knock out his
opponent but not being careless, doing it off a good jab," Hussein
said.
"Instead of throwing one punch at a time, maybe three or four punches
at a time."
"Catubay is a tough boxer. He’ll have a go, he’s going to be in Vic’s
face.
"I’m looking at Vic being smart and picking this guy to pieces."
Catubay’s trainer Samson Gello-Ani has passed on tips from Donaire
about how to fight Darchinyan and said it was important his boxer
wasn’t afraid of the Australian.
"He (Darchinyan) can be beaten, but Federico really respects Vic,"
Gello-Ani said.
The card also features some of Australia’s best emerging talent and a
much anticipated matchup between two distinguished former amateurs.
Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Lenny Zappavigna (10-0, 7 KOs)
will defend his national lightweight title against Olympian Ryan
Langham (9-0, 5 KOs).
Another hot prospect on the card is the current Australian junior
lightweight champion William Kickett (6-0, 3 KOs), who fights
Filipino Jun Paderna (8-7, 4 KOs).