by James Slater – A short time ago in Parramatta, Australia, 34-year-old Vic Darchinyan won a commanding 12-round unanimous decision over tough and durable Filipino Eric Barcelona. The Armenian-born southpaw dropped Barcelona three times en-route to his clear, 120-103, 118-105,116-108 points victory.
Now 35-2-1(27), “Raging Bull” Darchinyan also picked up the vacant IBO bantamweight belt. 28-year-old Barcelona, who retained his reputation as a fighter who is both as tough as they come and who has never been stopped, fell to 51-18-4(19)..
Darchinyan, who will now look for a big fight – possibly against this coming Saturday’s Vazquez-Marquez IV winner – had things his own way all night today. Barcelona, also a lefty, came to fight, and he came out pretty fast in the 1st-round, even catching the man who has won titles at flyweight and super-flyweight with a left hand to the head. Generally, however, it was all Darchinyan once he got into his groove and put the pressure on.
There hade been rumours before the fight that Darchinyan was nursing a sore left hand, yet he landed the shot a number of times to good effect. The first knockdown the southpaw banger scored, in the 5th-round, looked something like a slip, but the second knockdown came courtesy of a hard and nasty left hand.
Barcelona, who was also docked points for low blows – in the 6th and again in the final round – was game throughout and he tried to put pressure of his own on the star fighter. Even in the final couple of rounds, when he was hopelessly behind on the cards and knowing it, the Filipino was firing as best he could. His aggression saw him take another hard shot, though, and he suffered his third knockdown of the night in the 11th.
Looking to get himself a last-round KO, Darchinyan almost succeeded, wobbling the visiting fighter with another left hand to the head in the 12th. Barcelona survived to hear the bell, and though he can still claim to have never been stopped as a pro, before tonight he had never even been put down. Darchinyan’s power will hopefully be put to a much sterner test in his next outing.
A fight between Vic and the winner of Saturday’s “Once and Four All” would be a very interesting fight (providing the Vazquez-Marquez winner has enough left to be able to fight again!) as too would a fight between Darchinyan and the winner of the Yonny Perez-Abner Mares bantamweight title clash – which will be the co-main event on Saturday.
With a rematch against Nonito Donaire apparently off for now (maybe even for good), Darchinyan must look elsewhere for a big fight. Either of the two mentioned above would suffice!