MILLION DOLLAR MAN — DARCHINYAN FIGHTING FOR SEVENTH BELT
By Christian Nicolussi
The Daily Telegraph
April 9, 2009 Thursday
Australia
VIC Darchinyan has agreed to terms for his biggest payday yet by
taking on Joseph Agbeko in Miami on July 11.
Darchinyan and his manager Elias Nassar were involved in negotiations
for more than six weeks before they finalised the IBF bantamweight
world title stoush on Sunday.
The 33-year-old Darchinyan is expected to pocket more than $1million
should he flatten Ghanian-born Agbeko and win his seventh world title
in a third weight division — a feat that would easily make him the
most successful Aussie boxer in history.
"There is an economic downturn, and the fight could have been worth
more, but there has still been plenty of interest in Vic," Nassar
said last night.
"He’s in Russia at the moment where he has been training and honouring
business commitments where he is promoting the fight to the Russian
and Armenian communities.
"The fight in Miami is in the middle of July and it [temperature]
could be around 50C.
"We’ll head over to our training camp again in Las Vegas where we’ve
been the past four times."
Darchinyan became the undisputed super-flyweight champion in February
when he stopped Jorge Arce in the US. He has to add less than 2kg to
fight as a bantamweight and has already started to follow a strict
weights program to make sure he loses none of his power.
Nonito Donaire, the only man to beat Darchinyan, was mooted as an
opponent, as was WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel.
Should Darchinyan have no problems with bantamweight and defeat Agbeko,
who has won 26 of his 27 fights, super-bantamweight champion Israel
Vasquez will be on the slugger’s immediate radar.
Sydney-based Darchinyan is a superstar in his native Armenia and the
US, where he has continued to wow fight fans because of his prowess,
but he continues to struggle for media attention in Australia.