SHOWTIME: AGBEKO-DARCHINYAN CONFERENCE CALL
SecondsOut
USA Boxing News
09 JULY 2009
IBF bantamweight champion Joseph Agbeko.
IBF 118lbs champion Joseph Agbeko and two division world champion Vic
Darchinyan participated in a media conference call to discuss their
upcoming world title fight on Saturday, July 11, from the BankAtlantic
Center in Sunrise, FL, to be seen on Showtime.
Agbeko and Darchinyan both possess eye-popping knockout
percentages. Agbeko (26-1, 22 KOs) of Accra, Ghana, now fighting
out of Bronx, N.Y., has knocked out more than 81 percent of his
opponents while Darchinyan (32-1, 26 KOs), of Sydney, Australia,
by way of Armenia, is right behind him at 76 percent.
Darchinyan, an Aussie bomber who is a four-time world champion
at flyweight and super flyweight, will leave his IBF, WBC and WBA
titles at 115 pounds behind to move up to the 118-pound limit to
face the dangerous Agbeko. If victorious, Darchinyan will become a
three-division world champion.
The co-feature pits two top-10 ranked 135-pound contenders in the
biggest fight of their lives when Antonio DeMarco (21-1-1, 15 KOs),
of Tijuana, Mexico, takes on West African native Anges "Baby Face"
Adjaho (25-1, 14 KOs) in a 10-round bout.
The main event fighters and their promoters spoke on an international
media conference call Tuesday. The following are highlights from the
call: JOSEPH AGBEKO "In boxing you have to fight the best to be the
best and I just want Vic to know that this is the fight of my life. I
know Vic Darchinyan picked to fight me because he thinks he can have
his way with me but I just want him to know that this is the biggest
mistake he has ever made in his career because he’s going to get the
worst beating of his career.
"Why didn’t he talk like this when Nonito Donaire beat him? I wanted
him to talk more and I want him to realize that I’m going to beat
him more than Donaire beat him.
"I know I’m better than Vic Darchinyan. I know he can punch. I’m
really, really ready for his punches. I know he’s never been on the
receiving end of someone who punches like me.
"Vic is always talking about his power and about how he’s this and
that but I’ve watched a couple of his fights and I never saw that
power. He’s always fought guys that are afraid of him and he did what
he wanted with them. But in this fight I’m going to do what I want
to do and beat him the way I want.
"I’m going to let him do whatever he wants to do in this fight because
I can do whatever he does better than him.
VIC DARCHINYAN "I think after this fight they are going to change my
opponent’s name to Joseph ‘Chimpanzee’ Agbeko. This is going to be
the biggest mismatch. Where would you like me to hurt you most? In
the body or in the face?
"I can’t spend my career just defending, defending, defending. I have
to move up in weight and go after more titles. I have the power to
demolish anyone. I’m going to keep moving up.
"I’ve seen Agbeko’s fights and they don’t impress me. You will see,
nothing compares to my power. I will knock him out with my power. I
can open my jaw and let him punch it and he still won’t hurt me.
"I hope he’s working hard and training extra hard for this fight. I
don’t want it to be an easy fight. I want to be your nightmare after
this fight and not before because I want you to get a good night’s
sleep.
"I’m going to demolish him (Donaire) in a rematch."
ELIAS NASSAR, Darchinyan’s manager "There are not a lot of people
who don’t know that every single fight that Vic has asked for Gary
Shaw has delivered on."
GARY SHAW, Darchinyan’s promoter "I believe I represent probably a
fighter who will go down as one of the greatest boxers to ever fight
in the lower weights in the history of boxing. Please tell all the
poachers out there that Vic and I are bound together for life. I want
everyone who’s on this call to hear that.
"Vic only wants to fight the best fighters. Vic and Elias don’t care
about weights. They only want the best fighters and they believe
right now that "King Kong" Agbeko is the best fighter at 118 pounds."
When will Darchinyan fight Nonito Donaire again?
"SHOWTIME wants to buy the single biggest fights out there," said
Shaw. "That’s why he fought Cristian Mijares, that’s why he fought
Jorge Arce and that’s why he’s fighting "King Kong" Agbeko. And while
he’s been on TV and knocking all these fighters out on TV Donaire has
not been heard of or seen. When Bob Arum mentions all his great young
fighters he never mentions Donaire. If you haven’t seen those articles
I’ll be more than happy to send them to you. Just yesterday he was
talking about his Russian fighters and his Puerto Rican fighters. No
where did he mention Nonito Donaire. So the answer to that is he has
a fight in front of him on Saturday. We have to win that fight and
then the question is if we win that fight do we want to stay at 118,
move back down to 115 or do we take on (Rafael) Marquez or (Israel)
Vazquez or someone of that ilk at 122. That is our plan right now. Vic
fights for money, not for revenge."
The event is promoted by Don King Productions in association with
BankAtlantic Center.
Agbeko vs. Darchinyan and DeMarco vs. Adjaho are co-promoted with
Gary Shaw Productions, LLC.