Darchinyan Stops Arce After 11 Rounds to Retain Super Flyweight Belts

Posted by Raymundo Dioses on 02.08.2009

Ringside Report: Armenia's Vic Darchinyan proves to much for Jorge Arce, stopping him before the final round to keep a firm hold of his WBC, WBA and IBF titles

Photos by Tom Casino / Showtime

ANAHEIM, CA - This time, media members picked Vic Darchinyan to win, and this time, they were right.

The "Raging Bull" successfully defended his WBA, WBC and IBF titles with a TKO stoppage over challenger Jorge Arce after eleven rounds in front of a raucous crowd of 5,450 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

Darchinyan wasn't as the stalker he was in his last fight, which also ended in a stoppage by knockout over Christian Mijares, but Darchinyan slowly got into an offensive rhythm to which Arce, (51-5, 39KO's) could not answer to.

Darchniyan's momentum began in the second round, as he began to land his left hand with force, with Arce returning fire, yet not as effectively as the reigning super flyweight champion.

Arce landed his first major punch midway through the third round as the two proceeded to exchange in attempts to gain the momentum factor. Arce also had a productive fourth round, in which he landed a solid left hook to begin the round, and was able to land three to four punches in succession.

In the sixth, seventh and eighth rounds, Arce succumbed to the constant left hands from Darchinyan. Arce waiting to find openings in Darchinyan's offense, and there proved to be little. Darchinyan was able to apply more offense in these rounds, and won them simply due to more punching output with an advantage in punching power.

In the tenth, Arce was able to land an occasional right hand, but failed to either follow up on his punches or seriously hurt Darchinyan, who walked through Arce's punches with ease. Darchinyan was able to land solid, effective punches in the 30th minutes of the fight, which left the right side of Arce's face swelled.

The eleventh and decisive round was all Darchinyan, as Arce fell prey to big shots that left Arce's already swelling eye in a worse condition. He was battered against the ropes several times, and nearly stopped before the bell rang, ending the round.

After the round, ring side physician Paul Wallace suggested to referee, Dr. Lou Moret, to stop the fight based on Arce's badly cut and swelled right eye, and the fight was ended, with Darchinyan first winning over his journalistic critics, who predicted he would lose to the then favored Mijares in November of last year, then proving them right with their predictions of this fight and in the process retaining his championship titles.

Heading into the final round, Darchinyan, (32-1-1, 26KO's) was massively ahead on all three judges' scorecards, 109-100.

In the co-main event of the night, lightweight Antonio DeMarco stopped Almazbek "Kid Diamond" Raiymkulov after nine rounds of punishing action that was an exciting lead up to the night's main event. After the ninth round, Raiymkulov's corner decided their fighter could no longer continue, giving DeMarco, (21-1-1, 15KO's) the victory.

Armenian Vanes Martirosyan, (23-0, 14KO's) had no easy night over Youngstown, Ohio's Billy Lyell. The two fought a competitive eight rounds, with Martirosyan controlling most of the action, though injuring his left hand at the end of the first round. Lyell was game, but in the end, all three judges scored in Martirosyan's favor with the scores of 79-73, 78-74 and 80-72.