by James Slater – When they met back in the summer of 2007, Nonito Donaire sensationally TKO’d Vic Darchinyan in the 5th-round of their IBF flyweight title clash; the stunning stoppage earning the Filipino The KO of the year award. Ever since then, fans have craved a return fight between the two, so as to see for sure if “The Filipino Flash” did as “The Raging Bull” says he did and got lucky.
Now, according to Inside Sports, promoter Gary Shaw has announced how the long awaited sequel is all but a done deal for August 7th at The Home Depot Centre in California. Up at super-flyweight, the two archrivals will settle their differences and the fans who get to see the fight will surely see something special..
According to Inside Sports, WBA interim champ at 115-pounds Donaire will box a tune-up in May, against an as yet unannounced opponent, and the grudge-match will then go ahead three months later.
For quite a while now, Darchinyan, the reigning WBC and WBA super-flyweight king, has claimed Donaire is scared to meet him for a second fight. Now it appears as though Donaire has called the bluff of the Armenian-born warrior who lives in Australia. The southpaw banger who has lost just once since the upset to Donaire (on points to Joseph Agbeko up at bantamweight in July of last year) is 34 years old now, and it will be most interesting to see if he can indeed extract revenge over the speedy 27-year-old.
After the points loss to Agbeko in his failed IBF bantamweight title challenge, Darchinyan dropped back down to his more natural 115-pounds, where he has won two fights straight, including his points win last time out over the game Mexican, Rodrigo Guerrero. Darchinyan is now 34-2-1(27). For his part, Donaire has kept a clean sheet since flattening Darchinyan, winning five bouts on the spin since.
The gifted Filipino successfully defended the IBF flyweight belt he won with that awesome 5th-round TKO three times, before moving up three pounds and taking the interim version of the WBA 115-pound belt with a points win over Rafael Concepcion last August. In his most recent outing, the 27-year-old countryman of Manny Pacquiao scored an easy-looking 3rd-round stoppage of Manuel Vargas; former interim WBO minimum-weight champ Vargas being done away with in February.
To my way of thinking, the return fight between the two men who really do seem to have genuine dislike for one another has the look of a winnable fight for Donaire. While Donaire is probably at his peak right now and has been looking great recently, Darchinyan has been getting hit quite a bit in fights and he may be some way past his best at age 34. Also, styles make fights, and it may be that Donaire has Darchinyan’s number.
Of course, any fighter who holds the power Darchinyan possesses can never be written off; but I see another win for the younger, faster man. It may not end as soon as the 5th-round this time, but I see “The Filipino Flash” taking Darchinyan out for a second time