Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia)
August 18, 2005 Thursday
Tale of two bashes for groom Vic
by GRANTLEE KIEZA
VIC Darchinyan hopes to be a husband in 20 days but is just as nervous
about still being the world flyweight champion in six.
Darchinyan defends his IBF flyweight title next Wednesday against
Colombian slugger Jair Jimenez and a week later leaves for Armenia
with glamorous fiancee Olga Stovboun for a wedding in Vanadzor,
where his dad runs a petrol station.
Vic and Olga met through a mutual friend on the steps of the Sydney
Opera House after the 2000 Olympics where he represented Armenia.
He fell in love with Sydney and then with her.
Olga, who comes from Sakhalin Island, north of Japan, has lived in
Australia for five years and is the good looking one in this modern
tale of beauty and the beast.
They speak in Russian and she calls him by his real first name,
Vakhtang. But she is no great boxing fan and can hardly bear to watch
him sparring let alone punching and being punched for real.
The big-hitting little battler and the beautiful beautician are
counting down the hours to their big day and Vic is determined that
the Colombian firecracker he faces at the Sydney Entertainment Centre
in next weeks world title fight won’t blow up in his face.
“I will still be the world champion when I marry Olga,” said the
undefeated powerhouse, who yesterday finished sparring for the fight
with six rounds against Commonwealth Games aspirant Lenny Zappavigna
and rising professional middleweight Adam Vella.
“Jimenez is like me, very exciting, strong, a hard puncher. He walks
forward throwing big punches non-stop.
“But my trainers Jeff Fenech and Billy Hussein have me very fit and
I will go on to unify my weight division just like Kostya Tszyu did
at his weight.”
Darchinyan is undefeated after 23 fights with 18 wins by KO and apart
from his rigorous boxing training does 1500 pushups a day and runs
15km on alternate days to stay in shape.