AAP NEWSFEED, Australia
September 21, 2005, Wednesday 5:41 AM Eastern Time
Box: Promoters queue for Darchinyan
By Adrian Warren
SYDNEY
Australia’s only remaining male world boxing champion, Vic
Darchinyan, has been treated like a superstar in his native Armenia,
while back home, three promoters vie for the right to stage his next
world title defence against Irishman Damaen Kelly.
Darchinyan, who relocated from Armenia to Australia after the Sydney
2000 Olympics, has returned to the country of his birth for the first
time since winning the IBF flyweight title last December.
“He has been absolutely swamped over there as a superstar, he’s been
absolutely flat out doing media and doing guest slots on television,”
Darchinyan’s manager Robert Joske said.
“He’s finding it difficult to walk down the streets without getting
swamped by autograph hunters and he can’t wait to get home.”
Joske said Darchinyan was “most distressed” when he told his client
his former opponent Mzukisi Sikali had been killed by robbers in
South Africa last week.
He said the mandatory defence against Kelly would probably happen
between late October and mid-November.
Australian citizen Darchinyan is his adopted country’s only remaining
male world boxing champion after super featherweight Robbie Peden
lost his title to Mexican Marco Antonio Barrera in Las Vegas last
weekend.
Joske said he was “reasonably confident” the mandatory defence
against Belfast based boxer Kelly would not go to a purse bid and a
deal would be finalised in the next week or two.
He was waiting for a response from a number of Australian promoters
and revealed Darchinyan had received an offer to defend the title in
Ireland.
“They have made an offer, to fight in Belfast, I’ve knocked that
offer back, at this stage, and indicated that we will be coming back
with a counter offer to which they were most receptive,” Joske said.
“I’ve offered it to three Australian promoters, I’m now waiting for
them to respond with the best deal for Vic.
“Vic really wants to fight again in Australia and if we can make that
happen, then we are going to.”
Australia’s IBF number one ranked middleweight Sam Soliman has
challenged the leading WBC and WBA contender Ronald “Winky” Wright to
a fight, and proposed the winner should fight the victor of the
December 3 rematch between undisputed middleweight world champion
Jermain Taylor and former champion Bernard Hopkins.
Soliman could sit tight for a couple more weeks and wait for the IBF
to strip Taylor for not making a mandatory defence against him, which
would leave the Australian fighting IBF second ranked Kingsley Ikeke
of Nigeria for a vacant title.
However, Soliman’s manager Stuart Duncan said a fight with Wright
would be far more financially rewarding for his charge than a title
bout with Ikeke.
“We sit back and risk fighting Kingsley for $50,000 or do we go and
fight ‘winky’ for $350,000?,” Duncan said.
“Why don’t we unify the number one spot with the winner guaranteed to
meet Bernard Hopkins or Jermain Taylor.”
Taylor, who was injured in the first fight with Hopkins, was expected
to be fit for the rematch, but Duncan said Soliman would be willing
to step in, if the champion had to withdraw.
Duncan said he was also chasing a rematch for Jason DeLisle against
IBF light heavyweight champion Clinton Woods, who beat the Australian
in his last fight before winning the title.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress