Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
May 27 2008

Darchinyan confident of beating champ

May 27, 2008 – 3:06PM

Australian Vic Darchinyan rates IBF super flyweight World champion
Dimitri Kirilov as very beatable and predicts he will "destroy" the
Russian in their world title bout in August.

Darchinyan recently returned from Armenia, the country of his birth,
where he spent a few weeks preparing for his big fight return to North
America.

His August 5 clash with 29-year-old Kirilov will take place in either
Las Vegas or Vancouver.

Darchinyan was unimpressed by Kirilov’s performance in his first
defence in which he managed only a draw against Mexican challenger
Cecilio Santos, who had suffered seven previous professional losses.

"I know I’m going to destroy him, I’m very confident about this
fight," said Darchinyan of Kirilov, who has a record of 29 wins (9
KOs), 3 losses and a draw.

"I think he’s very beatable. All he can do is move, he’s not a big
puncher."

Darchinyan will head to America on June 24 for extensive pre-fight
sparing in Los Angeles and Texas.

His manager, Elias Nassar, revealed Darchinyan was also getting
assistance from staff at the NSW Institute of Sport.

"They are getting involved in nutrition and vitamin intake, so Vic
peaks on the day," Nassar said.

If Darchinyan defeats Kirilov, his first defence could be against his
old adversary Nonito Donaire, the only man to beat him in the
professional ranks.

Filipino Donaire, who took away Darchinyan’s IBF and IBO flyweight
world titles last year, is expected to move up to super flyweight and
could challenge WBO champion Fernando Montiel provided the Mexican
successfully defends his title this weekend against former Darchinyan
victim Luis Maldonado.

Donaire is also expected to appear on the August 2 promotion.

Used to beating up bigger sparing partners in the ring, Darchinyan is
now doing the same on computer games.

He was involved on Tuesday in one of several launches world-wide of
the Don King Prizefighter game.

As the only super flyweight, Darchinyan was testing himself out
against bigger foes in the game including lightweights Joel Casamayor
and Nate Campbell.