The Boxing Tribune

Boxing's Independent Media

  • Home
  • News
  • Videos
  • Best Of
  • Staff
  • Advertise With Us
  • Write for Us

Darchinyan and Perez: Fighting for Bantamweight Relevance

April 22, 2011 by Paul Magno Leave a Comment

0
SHARES
ShareTweet

by Tim Harrison

The third-place match of Showtime’s four-man bantamweight tournament, featuring Vic Darchinyan (35-3-1, 27 KO) and Yonnhy Perez (20-1-1, 14 KO), was originally intended to serve as a warm up to the tournament’s final. After IBF bantamweight titlist Joseph Agbeko’s sudden back injury forced the cancellation of his tournament championship bout with Abner Mares, Darchinyan and Perez will be headlining the Showtime Championship Boxing telecast.

Unofficially billed as a consolation fight between the losers of the first round matchups, Perez and Darchinyan are both well aware of what hangs in the balance on Saturday night.

With a win over journeyman Eric Barcelona sandwiched between a non-tournament loss to Joseph Agbeko in July of 2009, and December’s split decision tournament loss to Abner Mares, Vic “Raging Bull” Darchinyan’s bantamweight future is on the line.

Despite an inexplicable #8 ranking by Ring Magazine, a loss for Darchinyan, now 35 years of age, should drop him from relevance in the division. Ranked at #20 by The Boxing Tribune, Darchinyan’s 1-2 (0 KO) record in the bantamweight division will make justification of future fights against the best in the division that much more difficult, given a third loss. Name and past accolades will be the last bastion of the ever-confident Armenian.

Holding true to his reputation, Darchinyan comes in to tomorrow’s bout supremely confident and dismissive of the grim prospect before him. Despite his obvious inability to carry his vaunted knockout power up in weight, he is promising a knockout over the rugged Yonnhy Perez.

“I’m going to knock out everyone in front of me. This time it’s Yonnhy Perez, I’m just coming to knock him out. I’m just coming to destroy him. You will see,” Darchinyan said at a recent press conference in Los Angeles. “People talk about when I moved to bantamweight and say I’m not as powerful as I was at 115 pounds? You will see how powerful I am at bantamweight.”

Perez has remained unfazed by the confident posturing of the former flyweight and super flyweight champion. For the former Columbian soldier who now fights to provide a better life for his wife and two children in Colombia, Darchinyan is another in a long line of must-win fights.

After suffering his first professional defeat in last December’s first round bout with Agbeko, Yonnhy Perez has his sights set on returning to championship form. While Perez is 32 years of age, the late start to his boxing career has kept his mileage low, leaving his chances at rebounding greater than that of his brash counterpart.

As we see often in boxing, under-the-radar bangers like Perez are forced to take longer comeback trails than their flashier, more marketable brethren, when saddled with clusters of losses on the big stage.

After April’s memorable run of slugfests, upsets, and zeros that were forced to go, an untimely sciatica injury to Agbeko has taken a lot of the bang out of the April 23rd show. The two men forced to the top of the marquee, Darchinyan and Perez, will conduct business as usual.

A hard-charging, bad-intentioned southpaw will meet up with a rugged slugger that rarely takes a backwards step in the ring. Each fighter’s style complements the other well, and most are expecting an exciting result. Neither man will back down from the other.

Officially, 3rd place in Showtime’s bantamweight tournament is on the line. Unofficially, and most importantly, bantamweight relevance will be in the grasp of Saturday’s winner.



Your Ad Here

Paul Magno on Email
Paul Magno
Paul Magno
Paul Magno has over thirty-five years of experience in and around the sport of boxing and has had his hand in everything, from officiating to training. As a writer, his work has appeared in Yahoo Sports, Fox Sports, Inside Fights, The Boxing Tribune, Fight Hype, Man Cave Magazine, Bleacher Report, and The Queensberry Rules.

Filed Under: Featured, News, Opinion Tagged With: Vic Darchinyan, Yonnhy Perez

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Best of The Boxing Tribune

Inflatable Dolls, Twin Chinless Wonders, and an Elderly Black Gentleman:  Involuntary Visual Requirements for the Contemporary Boxing Fan

Inflatable Dolls, Twin Chinless Wonders, and an Elderly Black Gentleman: Involuntary Visual Requirements for the Contemporary Boxing Fan

No One Here Gets Out Alive (Who Really Killed Frankie Leal?); Magno’s Monday Rant

No One Here Gets Out Alive (Who Really Killed Frankie Leal?); Magno’s Monday Rant

Mayweather vs. McGregor and the snobbery of “real” boxing fans

Mayweather vs. McGregor and the snobbery of “real” boxing fans

What Can Save HBO Boxing Now?

What Can Save HBO Boxing Now?

The Wild, Wild World of Zeferino Jackson; Magno’s Monday Rant

The Wild, Wild World of Zeferino Jackson; Magno’s Monday Rant

More of The Boxing Tribune's Best

Follow Us

Facebooktwitteryoutube

Alexa Traffic Rank

Sportsbook odds for all Boxing matches

Search

Recent

  • Tyson returns with impressive display as odds available for potential future opponents
  • Crawford maintains unbeaten record following landing short odds in victory over Kell Brook
  • Kell Brook Loses In the Fourth Round To P4P King Terence Crawford
  • Boxing To Look Forward To This Weekend
  • How to Make Money From Your Boxing Passion