Vic Darchinyan is promising fans that his old “Raging Bull” style will be his strategy when he faces Yonnhy Perez next weekend in the “consolation bout” for Showtime’s bantamweight tournament.
Darchinyan is coming off a split decision loss to Abner Mares in December. Despite scoring an early knockdown, Darchinyan’s game plan of trying to box down the stretch did not deter Mares’ aggression, which in the end was enough in the eyes of two judges to award him the decision.
Darchinyan also complained of inept refereeing, claiming his was slowed down by repeated low blows.
“The referee let Mares hit me low over and over and didn’t take enough points. He should have been disqualified,” stated a still angry Darchinyan. “I was very upset with the referee. I got so tired and I think everyone can see it wasn’t because I wasn’t fit. It was my frustration with all the low blows. If you listen to the tape of that fight, in the eighth round, you can hear the referee lean in and say ‘I can’t cover you anymore. Don’t do it again or I have to take a point. I couldn’t believe it. And meanwhile, every second he was telling me don’t measure him; don’t put your left hand in front of you. What did he mean? He took me out of my game plan. I should have knocked him out cold.”
Knocking people out cold was Darchinyan’s trademark and led him to become the first undisputed super flyweight champion in history with KOs over Cristian Mijares and Dmitry Kirillov. Even with the setback of losing the tournament and being 35 years old, he still feels strong enough to compete several more years and possibly move to super bantamweight.
“I want to collect all belts in this division, but if I can’t get a fight with one of the champions, then I’ll move up a division and fight for a title there,” Darchinyan verified. “In a couple years, I will get tired of training, but right now I’m a hungry and eager to win more belts…I can’t say what round Perez will fall; I just know sooner or later I will destroy him. I don’t think he’s been down in his career, but many of my opponents have never been down and I knocked them out cold. I will do it again this time.”
Darchinyan-Perez will be the opening bout of the April 23 card, starting at 10:30 PM ET.
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 