The Sweet Science 07.06.09: Darchinyan vs. Agbeko, Chris Arreola

Posted by Igor Frank on 07.06.2009

A look into next weekend's bantamweight fight between IBF titlist Joseph Agbeko and Vic Darchinyan. Plus, what's next for Cristobal Arreola? Find out in this week's The Sweet Science with Igor Frank.


Photo by Tom Casino / Showtime

Next Saturday Vic "Raging Bull" Darchinyan is taking yet another step in the direction of super stardom. The Armenian power hitter is moving up to bantamweight to challenge an IBF king Joseph Agbeko for his crown in a twelve round title fight scheduled for July 11th at the Bank Atlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida to be televised by Showtime.

"I believe I represent probably a fighter who will go down as one of the greatest boxers to ever fight in the lower weights in the history of boxing," said Gary Shaw who promotes Vic, during last week's telephone conference: "Vic only wants to fight the best fighters. Vic and Elias don't care about weights. They only want the best fighters and they believe right now that "King Kong" Agbeko is the best fighter at 118 pounds."

Should Darchinyan be successful in his challenge of African slugger, which by the way is no small feat, he would be a champion in three different weight divisions.

I was ringside for the last three fights that involved Vic Darchinyan, all at 115 pounds; he first brutalized Dimitry Kirilov in February of 2008 and took away his IBF belt within five rounds, then in November he dominated and stopped Christian Mijares within nine rounds thus earning two more belts, he defended all his titles this February at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California punishing and beating to the punch game Mexican warrior Jorge Arce. Doctor stopped the fight at the end of eleventh on cuts saving Arce from receiving further damage. Instead of defending his titles again, Vic decided to move up to bantamweight.

"I can't spend my career just defending, defending, defending," said 32 year old Darchinyan:" I have to move up in weight and go after more titles. I have the power to demolish anyone. I am going to keep moving up. I have seen Agbeko's fights and they don't impress me. You will see nothing compares to my power. I will knock him out with my power. I can open my jaw and let him punch it and he still won't hurt me."

Let's hope that it is just trash talk that Vic has become famous for, because if he sticks his chin in the air he will get knocked out as Agbeko is a heavy handed puncher with power in both hands. "I know I am better than Vic Darchinyan," said Agbeko:" I know he can punch. I am really, really ready for his punches. I know he's never been on the receiving end of someone who punches like me." The African champion is not called King Kong without reason; he has a knock out percentage of 81.5%, which is actually higher than that of Darchinyan (76.5%). The only blemish on Agbeko's record is a controversial majority decision loss to

Sidorenko in Germany, a fight many including Vic thought Agbeko won.

Aside from matching his opponent with power and strength, Agbeko seemed to be just as fluid at trash talking. "Why didn't he talk like this when Nonito Donaire beat him?" instigated Agbeko:" I wanted him to talk more and I want him to realize that I'm going to beat him more than Donaire beat him. I just want him to know that this is the biggest mistake he has ever made in his career because he is going to get the worst beating of his life."

"I'm going to demolish him (Donaire) in a rematch!" exclaimed Darchinyan. And then getting back to Agbeko:" I hope he is working hard and training extra hard for this fight. I don't want it to be an easy fight. I want to be your nightmare after this fight and not before because I want you to get a good night's sleep."

The high level of trash talking will most certainly be upstaged by the violence and the skills in the ring. Don't miss this one; the 4th of July fireworks will seem like a show for kids.


What's next for Cristobal Arreola?



"Desperate times call for desperate measures," should have been the name for the press conference that was hosted by Dan Goossen last Tuesday at Sisley's Italian Kitchen in Sherman Oaks to discuss the future plans for Arreola.

Despite blowing out all of his opponents in the last few years in a spectacular fashion and currently being a huge favorite with HBO and fans, number one ranked WBC heavyweight Chris Arreola does not have a fight on the schedule.

"I just want a title shot and I will keep working hard to get it," said Arreola: "It doesn't matter who it is. People call the world champions (Valuev and the Klitschkos), but all their recent fighting has been in Europe. They should be called European champions. They need to come across the pond and fight here. They need to come to the U.S. and fight me. If they don't want to give it to me, I'm going to kick that door in."

Under heavy criticism for his weight and suspect training regiment Arreola and his team have hired strength and conditioning coach.

"I haven't been this sore in years," said Arreola:" But at the end of the day, I go home and say I'm sore, but it feels good."

"There's one main reason why we're here," continued Chris:" because I want everyone to know what's happening now, just the facts. I feel like I've been pushed to the side because of the threat I am to the champions. I come to fight. I believe I've earned the right to be among the best heavyweight fighters in the world. Who doesn't want to watch a heavyweight event in Los Angeles? Who doesn't want to watch a Mexican make history?"

The last memorable heavyweight fight in Los Angeles took place six years ago when undisputed heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis took on a late replacement Vitali Klitschko. The capacity crowd at Staples Center was delirious with excitement as two giants traded bombs with unparalleled intensity. Despite loosing due to a horrendous cut, Klitschko has silenced his critics by displaying incredible courage and heart worthy of a champion. Six years later Vitali is a champion and his representative Tom Loffler was present at the press conference. According to Tom the older of the Klitschko brothers is currently considering two opponents; David Haye and Chris Arreola.

"I have fought heavyweights. David Haye hasn't fought anyone," said Arreola: "I don't think David Haye has done anything to deserve a shot at that title."

That might be true, but unfortunately, boxing is like real life is unfair and most of the match ups are based on economic sense. Haye is a lot bigger fight in Europe than Arreola in United States, which makes Chris a second option. Vitali Klitschko plans to be in Los Angeles next week, hopefully I could report to you more by then.

"Cristobal is the most important heavyweight in the world because he has all the intentions of bringing that heavyweight title back to America," said Dan Goossen:" We believe he would knock out any heavyweight champion right now because of his fighting style. He's ready now, but he's just going to get better and better if they keep fighting in Europe." Could this statement provoke Klitschko to fight Chris? I don't know. But this statement by Chris did get a rise from somebody." There are a lot of old guys and former champs sitting around there that we need to take care of. Their time is up. They need to go. I will go out of my shell. I will fight to my last breath."

The quiet man John Ruiz wasn't so quiet responding to Arreola's comments.

"He wants to be the first Mexican to win the world heavyweight championship," said Ruiz:" Be a macho Mexican, Arreola. Walk the walk and fight the first and only Latino world heavyweight champ to really prove yourself."

Let's hope Arreola can keep his eyes on the prize and ignore John Ruiz completely: nobody, I repeat, nobody wants to see John Ruiz fight ever again.

Homework Time

Read "The Croxley Master" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, one of the most compelling short stories about boxing that I have read in a long time.


I would like to express my condolences to the family of Alexis Arguello. I am deeply saddened by his early departure. The boxing world has lost a great man. I consider Arguello one of the finest pugilists to ever lace up the gloves and his first fight with Aaron Pryor, years later still brings tears to my eyes.