IBF 115lb championVic Darchinyan scored a one sided 9th round knockout over WBC/WBA 115lb champion Cristian Mijares to unify most of the divisions titles. The fight marked the first time that those three belts had been unified in the 28 year history of the Junior Bantamweight Division. Mijares stood as a 3-1 favourite according to TAB sportsbet in Australia and was ranked in the top ten inRing Magazine’s Pound for Pound rankings. However he was left to look like just another opponent for Darchinyan, who didn’t look like losing the fight at any stage.
After a cautious start by both boxers, Darchinyan dropped Mijares in the closing moments of the first round with a brutal left uppercut that had the Mexican struggling to beat the count. From there it was all one way traffic as Darchinyan repeatedly beat Mijares to the punch throughout the fight. Mijares couldn’t read Darchinyan’s awkward style and was unable to get going throughout the bout and very rarely landed with any significant punches. Darchinyan, who represented Armenia at the 2000 Olympics before relocating to Australia, couldn’t miss with his left hand and landed with frequent combinations throughout the contest. With Mijares looking weary in the second half of the bout, Darchinyan closed the show in style; dropping Mijares with a crushing overhand left at the end of the ninth round. Referee Lou Moret waved the fight off as Mijares was in no shape to continue.
With the victory Darchinyan sits on top of a very talented Junior Bantamweight division and makes a very strong arguement for a spot in the pound for pound top 10. There are a few good matchups that could be made that would be very entertaining. Number one is a match to bring together all four belts with WBO champion Fernando Montiel. Mijares-Montiel is the fight I wanted to see before Vic did a number on him and now this fight makes sense. Hell, Vic has even called him out already. The second matchup that could be made is a rematch with Nonito Donaire. Donaire fought on the weekend and won by knockout and if he were to come up in weight I’m sure its a fight Vic would be more then happy to take. I also think Vic would knock Donaire out in a rematch as I don’t think the version of Darchinyan that Donaire fought is anything like the last two versions of Vic that we’ve seen. The third and maybe most entertaining matchup is Jorge Arce. Darchinyan wanted Arce for a long time until Mijares clowned him. This fight could still be made and it would be a blockbuster as both guys like to throw hard punches. It would be a war while it lasted.
One more thing I’d like to mention about this fight is that I’m absolutely disgusted by the lack of mainstream media attention this fight was given. I watched the sports section on three of Australia’s early morning news shows the day after and not one of them mentioned that an Australian had just won such a big boxing match. Yet everytime something like the Mayweather-Judah in ring brawl happens or a fighter dies in boxing its headline news. Not only did they not mention this fight, they talked about foreign athletes winning World championships in different sports yet completely ignore one of our own. How the hell is boxing ever going to get anywhere in this country when mainstream media covers it in such a biased way?
