[h1]False starts fuel the fire in Darchinyan, Arce[/h1]
By Dan Rafael
ESPN.com
(
Archive)
Updated: February 6, 2009
Tom Casino/Showtime
Does size matter? The bigger Vic Darchinyan, above, sure hopes so ahead of his clash with Jorge Arce.
[h3]At last, Darchinyan and Arce finally meet[/h3]
Better late than never, right? That sums up the road to the much-anticipated showdown between junior bantamweight champion Vic Darchinyan and Jorge Arce.
They have been on a collision course for two years. Finally, they will meet Saturday (9 p.m. ET/PT, Showtime) at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.
Getting to this point was no easy task.
"This matchup has been a long time in the making," said Top Rank's Bob Arum, Arce's promoter. "The boys have been after each other for a while, and it's going to be a great fight.
"Arce has been looking forward to facing Darchinyan for a long time. Everybody who follows boxing, particularly those following the fighters in this weight category, has been talking about this fight for years, and they are talking like this is a fight of the year. Finally, it will happen."
In March 2007, it was one of the most talked-about potential fights in boxing, a classic match between ferocious punchers with personality, heart and desire to fight top opponents. And it looked like it would be made.
With Showtime's Ken Hershman playing peacemaker, it looked as though Darchinyan promoter Gary Shaw and Arum were going to get together and make the fight, despite boiling animosity between them stemming from Shaw's lawsuit for more than $20 million against Arum over the fact that Arum fighter Jose Luis Castillo had failed to make weight for his third fight with Shaw fighter the late Diego "Chico" Corrales. But the bout was canceled, costing everyone a ton of money.
In the end, the powerful personalities of Arum and Shaw were too much to overcome, and the deal blew up.
When Arce lost a lopsided decision to then-junior bantamweight titlist Cristian Mijares in April 2007 and, three months later, Darchinyan lost his flyweight title via crushing knockout to Nonito Donaire, the prospect of the fight was dead.
Both fighters went about the business of rebuilding their careers.
Tom Casino/Showtime
Jorge Arce might be shying away from the microphone ahead of his clash with Vic Darchinyan, but he can't help but mug for the cameras.
Australia's Darchinyan (31-1-1, 25 KOs), 33, moved up to junior bantamweight, eventually knocking out Dmitri Kirilov in the fifth round to win a title in August and then unifying three 115-pound belts by destroying Mijares via ninth-round knockout in November.
Meanwhile, Mexico's Arce (51-4-1, 39 KOs), 29, reeled off five consecutive victories (four by knockout) and claimed an interim belt.
With both fighters having rejuvenated their careers, and Arum and Shaw seemingly having made peace -- they even joked around with each other quite a bit at a news conference last month in Los Angeles -- the fight was finally made.
"Vic has been chasing Arce around the world for years, and when Top Rank and Arce finally decided to take it, it took less than an hour to make this fight," Shaw said.
In the opening bout, lightweight prospect Antonio DeMarco (19-1-1, 13 KOs) will step up his competition against "Kid Diamond" Almazbek Raiymkulov (27-1-1, 15 KOs).
With their promoters having put aside their differences to finally make the match, Darchinyan and Arce couldn't be happier to be fighting each other.
"He was a well-known fighter and he is known for being a great puncher, but I want to show everybody that I am the bigger puncher and that I am the better fighter," Darchinyan said of his reasons for wanting to face Arce, a former junior flyweight titleholder.
Said Arce: "People think because I lost to Mijares and Darchinyan beat Mijares that Darchinyan will automatically win our fight. But that's not how it works. It is just talk. It is neither here nor there. Styles make fights. You'll see after I nail him what I am saying. … I am not leaving that ring without the three belts. I am smarter than him.''
While Arce has not done too much trash talking, even skipping the news conference in Los Angeles because he didn't want to break camp in the mountains outside Mexico City, he believes he'll score a knockout.
"I will knock him out," he said. "I don't see this fight going 12 rounds. I see it as a knockout. If he knocks me down once, I'm going to get back up. He's going to have to throw a lot of punches to knock me out. He's in for a long night."
Darchinyan has been talking up a storm for months. Like he does before all his fights, he's predicting another big knockout.
"I promise that I will punish Arce just like I did Mijares," he said. "I'm not going for the big KO early. I am going to punish him, let him recover, then I am going punish him some more and then knock him out. … I am going to demolish him.''
[h3]Lightweight tournament takes shape[/h3]
Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, who unveiled plans last week for a lightweight tournament to build a challenger for the winner of the Feb. 28 Juan Manuel Marquez-Juan Diaz championship fight, or perhaps a challenger for titlist Nate Campbell, accelerated plans this week.
Schaefer told ESPN.com that because there was little interest from the networks, he's planning an April 4 pay-per-view card featuring several lightweight contenders in either Houston or San Antonio.
Topping the card, Schaefer said, will be Edwin Valero against Antonio Pitalua, who will meet for an interim title. Although Valero signed a promotional contract with Top Rank last week, Golden Boy is involved with Pitalua and Schaefer said he had made a deal with Ricardo Maldonado, the Mexican promoter who won the rights to Valero-Pitalua at a purse bid. Valero, despite difficulties obtaining a license in many jurisdictions in the United States because of a non-boxing head injury suffered years ago, is licensed in Texas.
AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa
Edwin Valero, left, will top an April 4 pay-per-view card featuring several lightweight contenders.
Schaefer said two other bouts on which he is working for the card are Michael Katsidis against Jesus Chavez and Jorge Barrios against Carlos Hernandez.
Others who could appear on the card, Schaefer said, are Breidis Prescott and lightweight prospect Adrien Broner.
"We'd also leave the door open for Joel Casamayor if he wants to fight and we can work out the money," he said.
Schaefer said if Valero wins, he probably will go in another direction, given his deal with Top Rank, but "the idea is that these are the best lightweights, and we would see if we can match the winners up with each other in a second round. We'll put these guys in tough and see who will shine."
Katsidis' appearance on the card would come despite talk of a possible ESPN2 fight in April against Julio Diaz, a bout for which Sycuan Ringside Promotions said it had a commitment from both fighters. Sycuan notified ESPN on Wednesday that Katsidis had suffered a cut and cheekbone injury in his Jan. 31 decision victory against Angel Ramirez and wouldn't be ready to fight in April. Schaefer, who promotes Katsidis, said the boxer was not injured and would fight on the PPV card in April, and that nobody had ever come to him about the ESPN fight.
[h3]Chagaev returns[/h3]
Heavyweight titlist Ruslan Chagaev, out of action with injuries since making his only defense against Matt Skelton 13 months ago, returns Saturday (2 p.m. ET, Integrated Sports PPV, $24.95) in Rostock, Germany.
Chagaev, demoted to the WBA's "champion in recess" during his sabbatical while recovering from a blown out Achilles, faces untested Carl Davis Drummond (26-0, 20 KOs) of Costa Rica.
AP Photo/Frank Hormann
Ruslan Chagaev, left, has big plans for '09, but he'll have to get past Carl Davis Drummond first.
"After my injury break -- the long rehab, strength training and many, many training sessions without a break -- I'm glad that I can return so quickly to the ring," Chagaev said. "For 2009 and 2010, I have big plans. I am now fully fit and focused on this fight, which I clearly want to win."
If Chagaev wins, he'll have to face titleholder Nikolai Valuev in a rematch. Chagaev (26-0-1, 20 KOs) handed Valuev his only loss in April 2007 to win the title.
Also on the pay-per-view card, junior welterweight titlist Andreas Kotelnik (30-3-1, 13 KOs) of Ukraine makes a dangerous mandatory defense against Argentina's Rene Maidana (25-0, 24 KOs) and heavyweight prospect Denis Boytsov (23-0, 18 KOs) of Russia meets Israel Garcia (19-2, 11 KOs) of New York.