Sunday Telegraph – Australia

Raging Bull sizes up big Fui

* By James Hooper
* From: The Sunday Telegraph

* January 31, 2010 12:01AM

AS they stood toe-to-toe, it looked like the biggest mismatch since
Gorden Tallis used Ben Ross’s head as a speed ball.

Parramatta enforcer Fuifui Moimoi stepped into the ring with world
champion Vic Darchinyan at Eels headquarters last Friday, the Kiwi man
mountain against the Raging Bull Ant.

Moimoi might weigh twice as much as the 56kg super-flyweight, but when
it comes to speed, footwork and ring smarts, the diminutive Darchinyan
is all over the NRL cult figure.

It might have only been a mock sparring session, but there are no
jokes when it comes to finding Darchinyan’s next opponent for March 6
in the US.

Nicknamed the Mexican assassin because of his penchant for knocking
out boxers from south of the Californian border, the WBA and WBC
unified champion has had his past three adversaries pull out of
prospective fights. The reasoning is simple: Darchinyan’s left-hand
bombs are so lethal he has rival fighters running scared.

"I’m fighting on March 6 on the Arthur Abraham-Andre Dirrell card, but
up until today nobody has wanted to fight me," Darchinyan said. "It’s
been frustrating. They know my power and they don’t want to feel it.
My last three opponents have cancelled.

"They say it’s because of money, but I think it’s because they’re
scared. I’m the champion and I don’t care who I fight, I’ll fight
anybody."

The son of an Armenian Olympic wrestling coach, Darchinyan finally
landed an opponent last Friday in the form of Mexican Rodrigo
Guerrero.

To defend his WBA and WBC world title belts, Darchinyan intends to mix
up his training regimen to try to improve his already brutal punching
power.

Gone are the heavy sessions in the gym bench-pressing 120kg and doing
hundreds of push-ups with his feet elevated on top of one corner of
the ring.

Instead, the Sydney Olympian has been working with world champion
discuss thrower Dani Samuels to improve the fast-twitch muscle fibres
and explosive power in his legs.

Parramatta Eels conditioning gurus Hayden Knowles and Craig Catterick
are supervising the new lower-body program.

"Vic doesn’t need to work on his upper body, boxing is enough for him
in terms of maintenance there," Knowles said. "But by working on the
power from his legs, we believe we can increase his power quite
considerably."

Darchinyan’s manager Elias Nasser admitted the assignment of finding
fights was tough because of Darchinyan’s fearsome reputation.