by James Slater – Arguably one of the most exciting punchers in the sport today, “Raging Bull” Vic Darchinyan will be in action in Parramata, New South Wales, Australia on May 20th; when he will face Richard Garcia of The Philippines in a scheduled non-title ten-rounder.
The big-hitting southpaw with the 34-2-1(27) record will be having his first fight in Australia, where he of course calls home, since 2007. 25-year-old Garcia, 21-10-1(5) will hopefully be a final tune-up opponent for Darhinyan ahead of his in-the-works and hugely anticipated return with Nonito Donaire – a fight that is tentatively set for August of this year..
With all due respect, although Darchinyan is 34 years old now, he shouldn’t have too much trouble with the naturally smaller Garcia – a fighter who has been stopped five times as a pro and who is coming off a points loss down at flyweight.
Garcia will face Darchinyan up at super-flyweight, a weight he has not fought at before, and he will, as we know, be going up against a brutal puncher who will be in no mood to allow his return with Donaire go up in smoke.
Garcia is experienced enough, having boxed all over the place – in such countries as Thailand, South Korea, Japan and South Africa. Garcia has also met some good fighters; including the unbeaten Panomroonglek Kratindaenggym, three-time world title challenger Pornsawan Porpramook and, last time out, the unbeaten Zolani Tete. The problem is, Garcia lost to all three, and he has no obvious big win on his record.
The loss to Tete, back in February of this year, was an IBF flyweight elimination bout, and now Garcia will move up to 115-pounds against the world class Darchinyan.
Darchinyan himself is coming in off a successful title defence win over Mexico’s tough Rodrigo Guerrero, the WBC and WBA 115-pound title defence being his second-in-a-row since the points loss to Joseph Agebko up at bantamweight. Fighting at home will be a pleasurable experience for Darchinyan, and Garcia won’t spoil his latest coming home party one bit.
Too small, not anywhere near a big enough puncher and just old plain old out of his depth, Garcia, in my opinion, will do well to last to the halfway stage of the scheduled ten rounds. Then, hopefully, Darchinyan will get it on with a far more dangerous Filipino in Donaire in the late summer.
That fight, as I’m sure all fans will agree, is one that is too good not to happen!