SLICK VIC WINS NEW BELT
WA today
Aug 4 2008
Australia
VIC Darchinyan joined the ranks of Australia’s greatest boxers
yesterday by demolishing Russian Dimitri Kirilov to win a world title
in a second weight division in Tacoma, Washington.
The Sydney-based power puncher dominated the fight with his harder
shots and knocked the champion down twice in the fifth round.
The Armenian-born fighter, who relocated to Sydney in 2000 after the
Olympics, improved his professional record to 30-1-1 with 24 knockouts.
Darchinyan said he was always confident he would win at least one
professional world title after joining the paid ranks.
Kirilov, 29, could not continue after the second knockdown and had
his fourth defeat in 34 professional fights, dropping to 29-4-1.
He simply could not match the power of the 32-year-old Australian who
yesterday added the International Boxing Federation super-flyweight
crown to that organisation’s flyweight title which he won in 2004. A
delighted Darchinyan became only the second Australian citizen to win
a world title in more than one weight class, following Jeff Fenech
who captured championships in three different divisions.
Darchinyan said he did not consider himself to be on the same level
as Fenech or Australia’s former undisputed junior-welterweight world
champion Kostya Tszyu, but hoped to be ranked alongside them by
ultimately unifying the super-flyweight division.
The ambitious Australian wants to eventually move up in weight and
win a title in a third weight class.
He said his main target now was World Boxing Association and World
Boxing Council super-flyweight champion Cristian Mijares. Mexican
Mijares, 26, is set to defend his titles against Thailand’s Chatchai
Saskul in Mexico on August 30.
Fighting under his first trainer from Armenia, Darchinyan said his
plan had been to work the jab early before throwing in some uppercuts
in the fifth round.
He always felt in control.
"Everyone is saying it is one of my best performances," Darchinyan
said afterwards. "Showtime (US cable television network) is very
happy with me and so is my American promoter Gary Shaw. I think it
is one of my best performances."
Darchinyan will travel to Armenia for a break before returning to
Australia next month. Following a fight with Mijares, he wants to
unify the division by dethroning Mexico’s World Boxing Organisation
titleholder Fernando Montiel, then look at moving up in weight.
â- Ghana’s Joshua Clottey won the vacant International Boxing
Federation welterweight title by stopping Zab Judah in the ninth
round in Las Vegas yesterday.
Clottey won his fifth-straight fight, capturing the vacant title
previously held by Antonio Margarito.
Referee Robert Byrd halted the fight in the ninth round with Judah
bleeding from a cut over his right eye.
The match was stopped and turned over to the judges’ scorecards. Two
judges scored the bout, 86-85, while the other judge had it, 87-84,
for Clottey. Clottey lost in his only previous title bout to Margarito
in December, 2006.
The vacancy for the IBF belt was created when former champion
Margarito relinquished the belt in order to face Miguel Cotto —
after the Mexican stopped the unbeaten Cotto last week to claim the
World Boxing Association title.
–Boundary_(ID_395TeMZ/DSoUab1CLKscAg)–