BOX: DARCHINYAN READY TO DAZZLE
BY: Adrian Warren

AAP Newsfeed
November 19, 2009 Thursday 5:43 PM AEST
Australia

Australia’s super flyweight boxing world champion Vic Darchinyan
is winning his battle with the scales and is set to dazzle upcoming
opponent Tomas Rojas in California next month.

IBF, WBA and WBC champion Darchinyan completed his final pre-fight
Australian training session on Thursday before flying out to America.

The 33-year-old Sydneysider will be up against the tallest opponent
of his professional career, with the Mexican enjoying an advantage
of around eight centimetres.

Darchinyan (32-2-1, 26 KOs), revealed speed would form an essential
part of his plan to defeat the 29-year-old challenger.

Armenian-born Darchinyan revealed he had to shed more weight than
before any previous fight in his professional career.

He said he had allowed his weight to blow up almost 10 kilos over
the super flyweight limit of 52.16kgs in the aftermath of his last
fight loss to Joseph Agbeko in July.

"I was back in Armenia enjoying myself with my friends, eating all day,
I put on lots of weight," Darchinyan told AAP on Thursday.

"It takes a long time to take it off, but I know when I go back to
America I’ve got to be in control of my diet.

"I’ve dropped now to 57kgs, I know I can do it."

Darchinyan reiterated he had only himself to blame for losing his
bantamweight title bout against Agbeko.

He stressed he would revert to the style which worked so successfully
in his masterful performance against Cristian Mijares last November.

"This fight, you are going to see exactly what happened with Mijares,"
Darchinyan said.

"All my angles, all my speed, you are going to see how fast I am.

I’m going to be much faster that I was before."

Rojas is a skilful, busy fighter with very good movement.

Darchinyan will continue sparring with taller fighters when he hits
Las Vegas, where he will remain until just under a week before his
fight in California.

Provided he defeats Rojas (32-11-1, 22 KOs), Darchinyan wants to
have just one more fight at super flyweight against Nonito Donaire,
the only professional to beat him apart from Agbeko.

Donaire won the interim WBA super flyweight title while Darchinyan
moved up to bantamweight to challenge Agbeko.

While Darchinyan would also love a rematch with Agbeko, he is also
keen to fight the man who took away the Ghanaian’s title, Yonnhy Perez.

The Colombian is promoted by American Gary Shaw, who also looks after
Darchinyan’s interests.