DARCHINYAN CLAIMS THIRD IBO WORLD TITLE
ADRIAN WARREN
Sydney Morning Herald
May 20 2010
Australia
Australia’s Vic Darchinyan became the first boxer in history to win
three IBO world titles, as he demolished Filipino Eric Barcelona in
their clash for the vacant bantamweight title at Parramatta Leagues
Club on Thursday night.
Sydneysider Darchinyan removed any fears about a reported injury to
his left hand by twice knocking down Barcelona in the fifth round and
once more in the 11th on his way to recording a convincing unanimous
12-round points win.
The three judges scored decisively in Darchinyan’s favour by the
scores of 120-103, 118-105 and 116-108.
The Armenian-born slugger added the IBO’s bantamweight belt to the
ones he had previously won at flyweight and superflyweight.
The victory set the 34-year-old southpaw up for a major fight in the
United States in mid-year.
He could meet the winner of either the Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez
featherweight bout in Los Angelos on Sunday or the victor of the other
big fight on that card between Columbia’s IBF bantamweight champion
Yonnhy Perez and Mexican challenger Abner Mares.
Barcelona, who had never been knocked down or stopped in his previous
72 professional bouts, proved a willing and rugged opponent.
He wasn’t afraid to mix it with the Australian and was penalised a
point for low blows in the sixth and 12th rounds.
He landed some decent single shots, but couldn’t maintain any pressure
against Darchinyan, who piled up points with his right jab and some
accurate power punching.
It wasn’t a pretty fight with the Filipino slipping to the canvas a
number of times and frequently grappling with Darchinyan, who ruled
the contest with his greater punch output and more accurate blows.
Barcelona landed a good overhand left in the opening round, but
Darchinyan started to open up towards the end of the second and third
and started the fourth aggressively before ratcheting the pressure
up in the fifth.
He wasn’t able to immediately capitalise on the two knockdowns, the
first of which seemed almost as much a slip as a punch, though the
second was definitely due to a venomous left hand shot.
Barcelona tried to pressure Darchinyan at the start of the 11th, but
the tiring Filipino paid the price as he was put down for a third time.
Darchinyan tried to close the show in style and almost succeeded as he
wobbled Barcelona with a left to the chin inside the last 10 seconds.