By Paul Strauss: Expectations were high at the Nokia Theater, Los Angeles, CA. Maybe fans were in for a fight of the year type clash.Two former champions coming off of tough close losses, who were trying to redeem themselves and get right back into the thick of things. Both Yhonny Perez and Vic Darchinyan promised to come out strong and dictate their superiority in quick fashion.
Yhonny claimed to have been one half step off in his fight with Joseph Agbeko, and he wasn’t about to let that happen again. He had trained in Columbia and was near to his family. He felt he gained strength from that decision. Vic explained that he tried to box too much against Abner Mares, and he assured listeners that he wasn’t going to let that happen again. This time he intended to show his power.
Showtime announcers Al Bernstein, Gus Johnson and for champion Antonio Tarver had difficulty controlling their excitement. Al promised everyone that if this fight went the distance, he fully expected it to be a candidate for fight of the year. All three expected an immediate onslaught of punches to come with the opening bell, and no let up by either fighter.
The two warriors came out strong, but Vic was definitely more aggressive. He quickly had Yhonny backing up and landed some good hard straight and looping lefts to Yhonny’s head. The punches shook him up. Yhonny managed to get a couple of hard rights through to Vic’s body, but the punches didn’t have any immediate affect.
In the second round, Vic caught Yhonny with a beautiful left uppercut, followed by tangled feet and a shove. Down went Yhonny and Referee Jerry Cantu deemed it a legitimate knockdown. Yhonny beat the count, but Vic jumped all over him and mixed his shots up pretty well; although, he didn’t really try to set them up. He just winged them. Many landed though, including some pretty good body shots. Then he landed another hard left uppercut, and managed to get Yhonny backed up against the ropes where Yhonny proved to be too stationary for his own good. That point was proved again when Vic landed yet another hard uppercut, and then proceeded to pummel Yhonny while he was against the ropes.
In the third round, Vic came out a bit slower, undoubtedly because he was a little arm weary. Yhonny managed to get through some hard looping rights of his own that got Vic’s attention. But, change in control only lasted for a little while, and then Vic came roaring back on the attack. He pulled out the round by landing some quick hard flurries. Yhonny’s corner tried to pump up his confidence by telling him that he had a much better round, and that Vic was getting tired.
In the fourth round, Vic continued with the attack he finished with in round three. He landed two hard lefts, and continued to throw the punches from different angles or directions. They were hard for Yhonny to pick up. Sometimes they with coming over the top. Then a left would come in more like a hook. Quite a few times Vic would be leaning to his right, almost like he was going to throw a right hook to the kidney, but instead a straight left would crack through Yhonny’s guard. Ouch! He also employs an unusual tactic of pawing with a punch, sometime pushing, and then a sharp hard punch will come crashing through. He has a very difficult style to read.
In the fifth round, Vic resumed his attack, and he had Yhonny against the ropes again. As he was pulling out of the move just described, his head naturally was moving .
back to center. At the same time, Yhonny was starting to move his head down and to his left to get under the attack, and bang the two heads clashed. Yhonny came away from the collision with a bad cut above his left eye. Referee Cantu stopped the action, signalling an accidental head butt. He waived Vic over to a neutral corner, and walked Yhonny across to the ring to be examined by the ringside physician.
Doctor Paul Wallace wiped the blood away, took a close look, wiped the blood away again, and then leaned over the ropes, signalling for the referee to come closer, and then he confided with Cantu that the fight should be stopped. It was 1:07 of the Fifth Round, and since the fight had gone four complete rounds, the decision went to the judges. All three scored it a shutout for Vic 50-44, so Vic captured the IBO bantamweight title, and put himself in line for another big fight with the eventual winner between Abner Mares and Joseph Agbeko, which was cancelled because of injury to Agbeko’s sciatic nerve.
In the post fight interview, announcer Jim Gray asked Vic how he managed to come back so well after his defeats? Vic explained that he didn’t look at his losses as true losses. He felt that he either beat himself, or wasn’t allowed to fight his fight by a referee. When Jim asked him if he would like to fight Abner Mares again, he quickly said yes, and added that this time he would knock him cold!
Yhonny Perez told Jim that he thought Vic came in with a good fight plan. But, he also thought he would have turned the fight around if the referee had allowed it to continue. He felt he was starting to gain control. As far as what is in store for him next? H said he didn’t know. His plans include going back to Columbia to get some rest and heal up, and then he will see what comes along.