Los Angeles Times, CA
Feb 8 2009
Vic Darchinyan backs up talk with convincing victory
As promised, he beats up on Jorge Arce.
Bill Dwyre
February 8, 2009
Vic Darchinyan, a boxer who threw as many insults before the fight as
he did lethal punches during it Saturday night, saved the final insult
for last.
After months of calling his super-flyweight opponent slow and dumb and
a fraud, as well as sparring with a female and declaring her a better
puncher, Darchinyan completed things by beating up the guy.
The mouth that roared finished popular Mexican Jorge Arce, much like
he said he would, in their 115-pound boxing title match at the Honda
Center. It ended with Darchinyan, the Armenian who lives in Australia,
way ahead on all cards and Arce sitting in his corner, bleeding badly
from both eyes but set to give it one more round.
Then ringside doctor Paul Wallace took a long look at the cuts around
Arce’s eyes and waved the end to the proceedings.
Good call by the good doctor. A final round would have been like an
extra episode of "M*A*S*H*." More blood for entertainment purposes
only.
Even the highly partisan Mexican crowd, increasingly quiet as the
battle went on, knew that enough was enough. Of the 5,450 who showed
up in person for the fight that was televised on a delayed basis on
Showtime, about 5,000 made enough pre-fight noise to make it clear
that Mexico is a lot close to Anaheim than Armenia or Australia.
They booed every sighting of Darchinyan and booed him all the way down
the aisle of his entrance.
Then he quickly shut them up with a wild-swinging start that left Arce
battered and cut early and became merely a prelude to more of the
same.
When the TKO was called after the 11th, each of the three judges had
Darchinyan ahead, 10 rounds to one.
Darchinyan, 33, who retained his three titles in three divisions and
increased his record to 32-1-1 with his 26th knockout, is fast
becoming an attraction, even though he weighs about the same as Andrew
Bynum’s injured leg and is fighting in a division that is not
traditionally of much marquee value.
Part of that is his pre-fight act, which crosses the line, even for
boxing. Among the quotes Darchinyan dished out in some of the
pre-fight hype sessions was the classic: "Mexico has a lot of great
fighters, but he’s not one of them."
And, on this night, the veteran Arce, now 51-5-1 and only 29 years
old, was clearly not.
He had countered Darchinyan’s blabber with his own attempts.
"Darchinyan’s greatest strength is his mouth," Arce said, among other
things.
Nope. That was maybe a strong second. His greatest strength was a left
hand that should be outlawed. Other fighters use their lead hand to
jab. Darchinyan uses his more like a gun sight.
To Arce’s credit, he remained on his feet to the end, something that
didn’t look likely in the early going. His toughness even impressed
Darchinyan, who predictably toned down the rhetoric a bit after it was
over.
"He surprised me," Darchinyan said. "I didn’t expect him to fight like
he did. He proved he was tough and a good fighter. I hit him with good
shots and he fought back.
"I would have liked to knock him out, but it’s OK the way it ended."
After it was over, Arce indicated that he was either more game than
any human should be or all those head shots had done some damage.
"I realize he was a strong fighter," he said, "but the cut was from
his elbow. I don’t know why they stopped it going into the last
round. A fighter always has a chance to win."
Realistically, Arce had none.
Later, after some time to think, Arce got it right.
"He’s a great fighter," he said.
The sky seems to be the limit now for Darchinyan, both with his mouth
and with his fists. He has even chattered about taking on Manny
Pacquiao, the sport’s current leading attraction. Pacquiao weighed 32
pounds more than Darchinyan’s 115 when he destroyed boxing legend
Oscar De La Hoya in December.
One thing is certain for the boxer whose nickname is, fittingly, the
"Raging Bull."
With Vic Darchinyan, talk is never cheap.
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