Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
Nov 16 2008

Darchinyan’s trash talk yanks Americans’ chain

Stathi Paxinos
November 16, 2008

BROWSE through some of the American boxing forums on the internet and
you could come across some surprising criticism of Australia’s newly
crowned and undisputed super-flyweight world champion, Vic Darchinyan.

There among the entries of his fans are those who brand him as
arrogant and a trash talker. It is somewhat ironic criticism given the
boxing industry and many of its participants, particularly in America,
have perfected the art.

Darchinyan, who is winning a growing support base and the interest of
American television networks with his all-action style in the ring,
certainly does not lack belief in his abilities and is not afraid to
tell people about it. It is a style that has put some off-side – most
notably a possible next opponent in Mexican Jorge Arce.

But Australian boxing commentator Paul Upham said the criticism was a
case of the straight-talking Sydney-based Armenian being misunderstood
– because his predictions of beatings were delivered with such
conviction, "people [think] he is too serious or too arrogant".

"There’s no doubt that a lot of them don’t like him over the way he
talks," Upham said. "I found it to be completely misrepresented
because once you get to know Vic you find that it’s not arrogance,
it’s not cockiness, it’s just supreme confidence.

"I remember when he first came to start training under Jeff [Fenech]
after the Sydney Olympics in 2000. He hadn’t even had a pro fight and
he would talk about guys he would eventually fight and he would say,
‘I will fight him and I will beat him.’

"But to be the best in any weight class or to be one of the elites you
have to have that supreme confidence that no one else can beat you."

But ESPN’s Dan Rafael, one of America’s leading boxing writers, said
he had mainly come across positive feelings for Darchinyan.

"The boxing fans I encounter, most importantly, like watching him
fight because he doesn’t mess around," Rafael said. "He gets in there
and tries to knock your head off. He makes fights that are
entertaining, that people like to watch – so the trash talk, that just
goes with the territory.

"Some people think it’s funny, some don’t like it, some enjoy it but
mainly they like watching the guy fight, they’re boxing fans and they
know what they’re going to get with a Vic Darchinyan fight and that is
probably someone going to get knocked out."

Darchinyan has every reason to have a bit of a strut after his
nine-round demolition of highly regarded Mexican world champion
Christian Mijares earlier this month.

Darchinyan had gone into the fight as the International Boxing
Federation belt holder but a marked underdog against Mijares, who held
the World Boxing Association and World Boxing Council titles. Most
believed the Mexican would be too classy, with a poll of boxing
writers backing Mijares 26-6 before the fight.

Still, Rafael insisted the reporters had no disrespect for Darchinyan.

"I think everybody’s got respect for Vic," he said. "They just looked
at it as a style thing where Mijares was the type of guy who could
solve the kind of fighter that Vic is. Obviously we were wrong and
congratulations to Vic for doing what he said he’d do."

The question now is where to from here for Darchinyan, a former
flyweight world champion. The feisty 32-year-old has been talking big,
saying he wants to win as many world titles in as many weight
divisions as he can.

His manager, Elias Nasser, said the priority was a fight against Arce,
although he said the match-up was looking less likely as negotiations
dragged on. If it falls through, Darchinyan will probably move up to
bantamweight, where his camp has already made approaches to WBC
champion Hozumi Hasegawa and WBO title-holder Gerry Penalosa.

However, apart from potentially equalling Fenech’s effort of winning
world titles in three weight divisions, bantamweight holds little
attraction for Darchinyan because of its lack of big-name opponents. A
world title there would be used as a stepping stone to bigger paydays
in the super-bantamweight division against the likes of Israel Vazquez
and Rafael Marquez – and the possibility of a world title in a fourth
weight division.

First, however, Darchinyan has his eye on claiming the super-flyweight
WBO title from highly rated Fernando Montiel, thus putting his name
among the few to have held the four major belts in the one division at
the same time.

"If I collect four belts I don’t think it will ever happen again in
the history of boxing in this weight division," Darchinyan said.

"It’s too hard."