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Typically, when a fight fan hears terms such as ‘flyweight title bout’, ‘match-up between two southpaws’ and ‘Armenian Olympian’ to describe an upcoming fight it ranks right up there with ‘new Barry Manilow album’ as things you probably aren't interested in. That was not the case with the match-up Friday night between Vic ‘Raging Bull’ Darchinyan and Diosdado ‘Prince Lionheart’ Gabi for the IBF flyweight title televised on ShoBox: The New Generation from the Chumash Casino Resort in Santa Ynez, California. The much-ballyhooed Darchinyan lived up to the hype with a devastating one-punch eighth-round stoppage of the game Gabi in a very entertaining affair to defend his crown for the third time and move his record to 25-0 (20).
It was evident from the beginning that Gabi, who falls to 26-3-1 (19) with the loss, came prepared to win and he seemed to get the better of the early action by continually moving and pivoting to give himself new angles to punch from, avoiding most of the free-swinging Darchinyan's powerful left hands and landing some good straight lefts of his own in return. For his part, Darchinyan came out like a ‘Raging Bull’ in a china shop, firing wildly with every punch meant to end the night early as he loaded up his left hand and coiled it like a snake getting ready to strike it's prey.
As he vowed before the fight, Gabi didn't give an inch and was willing to trade with Darchinyan when necessary although it was evident that there was a difference in power. Gabi appeared to win two of the first three rounds and had Darchinyan frustrated as he followed trainer Freddie Roach's instructions to the letter by backing up Darchinyan and getting off first when many felt his strategy coming into the fight would be to box and counter-punch. In between the third and fourth rounds, Darchinyan's trainer Jeff Fenech was pleading with his fighter to re-establish himself and to give himself room rather than smothering his own punches. Heeding the advice, Darchinyan seemed to fight at a more controlled pace and began to turn the tide in the fourth round. Gabi started the fourth off with a huge straight left 15 seconds into the round that backed up Darchinyan and it appeared his confidence was growing, but as the round continued Darchinyan's own lefts were landing with more and more frequency as he began to pick his spots and counterpunch effectively.
Rounds 5-7 were more of the same as the fighters exchanged punches with Darchinyan's power edge giving him the slight advantage in the scoring in each of those rounds. Round 8 was going in a similar fashion when Darchinyan uncorked a murderous straight left that floored Gabi, who gamely rose at the count of eight but his legs were doing a ‘Mr. Bojangles’ (with apologies to former USA Network boxing announcer Randy Gordon) under him forcing Referee David Mendoza to wisely halt the bout at 2:42.
“Gabi was glassy eyed and his equilibrium was off,” Mendoza explained of the stoppage.
After the fight, Dachinyan praised his game opponent.
“I could not believe Gabi took so many punches,” Darchinyan said. “I was impressed. He is a really good fighter with an impressive jab. I saw he was tough after the first few rounds, so I started to move around more and wait for openings. I gained more power with each round and felt stronger as the fight progressed.”
Darchinyan showed amazing stamina for a heavy hitter that throws so many punches, never really tiring despite missing a lot of shots early in the fight. Although he will never be accused of ‘floating like a butterfly’ with his boxing ability, he more than makes up for it in the power and determination departments. Darchinyan is hopefully headed for a unification bout with Jorge Arce in a clash between two of the most exciting fighters in the sport which would make for a Fight of the Year caliber match-up.
On the televised undercard, the previously unbeaten Anthony ‘The Matrix’ Mora squared off with rugged Rustam ‘Mangust’ (which is translated as Mongoose, but make no mistake, he will never be confused with Archie Moore) Nugaev in a scheduled 10 round bout. It was clear early in this one that the lanky Mora had bitten off more than he could chew with the determined Nugaev, who employed a strategy torn from the playbook of the UFC as he blindly rained down clubbing lefts and rights similar to the ‘ground and pound’ tactics often seen in the octagon (although in fairness to the UFC this is usually done when a defenceless combatant is on his back not standing against the ropes). Mora, now 15-1 (10), appeared to lose every round and all but got on his hands and knees and begged Referee Jack Reiss to stop the fight before he mercifully pulled the plug at 2:39 of the fifth round. Nugaev moves to 16-4 (8) and serves as a good stepping-stone fighter for young prospects as he is just talented enough to give them a test but has enough deficiencies to make him very beatable. Despite having a legitimate excuse of being weakened by having to lose weight prior to the fight, Mora probably needs to look for a new profession as he didn't show anything that would make one think that he has much room to develop into a contender. His main offensive weapon in the fight was limited to launching an uppercut from 39 1/2 feet away from his opponent.
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© Copyright / All Rights reserved: Doghouse Boxing 1998-2006
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By Shane Simmons (March 4, 2006)
