Bakhtang
“Vic” Darchinyan (born 7 January 1976) is an Armenian professional
boxer. He is a former world champion in two weight classes.
Bantamweight
While
retaining his WBC and WBA super flyweight belts, Darchinyan vacated
his IBF belt in order to move up to bantamweight to fight IBF champion
Joseph Agbeko in Sunrise, Florida on July 11, 2009. He lost a unanimous
decision in a fight he looked almost too overly aggressive in and
couldn’t seem to come with the Ghanan’s style and repeatedly walked
into straight right hands. Agbeko spoiled Darchinyan’s goal of winning
his third world title in a different division. Two judges scored the
bout 114-113 for Agbeko, while the third had it for the Ghanaian Agbeko,
116-111. Despite the defeat at bantamweight, Darchinyan was still
recognized as super flyweight champion by both the WBC and WBA.
In
May 2010 Darchinyan won the vacant IBO bantamweight title with a one
sided unanimous decision victory in his adopted land of Australia
over Eric Barcelona. Barcelona was knocked down twice in the fifth
round, once in the eleventh round and was docked a point in each the
sixth and twelfth rounds.
Following the win, it was soon announced
that Darchinyan would take part in Showtime’s four man bantamweight
tournament along with Joseph Agbeko, Abner Mares and IBF bantamweight
champion Yonnhy Perez. Vic lost in the semi-finals against Mexico’s
Mares via controversial split decision. Darchinyan dominated Mares
in first half of the fight. Mares was knocked down once in the second
round and was docked a point in the fourth round for low blows. Mares
had been throwing dirty punches the entrire fight, however, and continued
to do so, being warned 16 more times after the point deduction. The
referee continued to turn a blind eye to Mares’ low blows and, as
a result, Mares started winning rounds. Darchinyan was knocked down
once in the seventh round out of pain from low blows. When the win
was announced for Mares, the audience seemed surprised, as many felt
Darchinyan had won this fight.
In the consolation bout, Darchinyan
rocked Perez in round one, knocked him down in round two and was in
command all the way. Perez had his moments but wasn’t able to hold
off Darchinyan’s aggression. The bout ended when Perez was cut by
an accidental head butt at 1:07 of round five. Scores were 50-44 on
all cards. Darchinyan dedicated his victory to the lives lost in the
1915 Armenian Genocide, as well as the Australians that perished in
Anzac Day for the the following day. On April 24, one day after his
fight, he joined thousands of Armenian Americans on the streets of
Los Angeles in a march to commemorate the Genocide. Vic was later
honored at the Armenian National Committee of America Annual Banquet
on November 26. He was rated #1 contender by the WBA shortly after
the fights.
On April 6, 2012, Darchinyan lost to WBC bantamweight
champion Shinsuke Yamanaka in Yamanaka’s home country of Japan. The
fight was not without controversy. Darchinyan was slightly ahead on
one card and the other two were even after the fourth round. In the
fourth, a clash of heads opened a bloody cut on Darchinyan’s eyebrow
and nose. Yamanaka hit Darchinyan with an elbow on the same eyebrow
in round five, severing the cut. The referee was not in line of sight
to see this. Blood was pouring more rapidly out of Darchinyan’s eyebrow
afterward and the ringside doctor examined it. A fight would usually
be stopped and given a technical decision at this point.