Sometimes You're Just Wrong: Darchniyan-Mijares

I am on record on as saying that the excitement about the 115 lb fight between Cristian Mijares and Vic Darchinyan was unwarranted, because Darchinyan just didn't have the polish to compete with Mijares.

When Darchinyan knocked Mijares out inside the closing twenty seconds of their battle, I was proven wrong.

Not because I didn't know that Darchinyan was a big puncher. I did. Rather, the Darchinyan I knew was the clumsy, easy-to-hit, open-to-being-hurt-by-a-counter who was floored in a draw with Z Gorres in his first fight at 115 and knocked out by Nonite Donaire at flyweight.

Fight night, Darchinyan was quick-handed, awkward but NOT clumsy, and his defense was surprisingly tight. His awkward defense and hard punching allowed him to limit the output of the naturally bigger Mijares, who appeared to be trying to use his size to back up and intimidate Darchinyan. It didn't appear to work until the 4th round, and it never worked consistently enough to win Mijares more than a round or two before he was knocked out.

Of course, Darchinyan was still a puncher, and it was his punching that made this fight exciting. He floored Mijares with a leftt uppercut in the first round and continued to land big left hands throughout the fight. He has clearly added much better combination punching to his arsenal, for he landed as many jabs and nearly as many right hooks as he did big lefts.

The result is a shakeup of the 115 lb division and, perhaps, of the Pound-for-Pound rankings. Mijares was considered a top-ten lb for lb fighter prior to this fight, and was The Ring's #1 ranked fighter at 115. Darchniyan simply beat him up with the harder punches, while holding his own in the boxing match. Mijares' Pound-for-Pound ranking has to be a thing of the past and, while I think slick and hard-hitting boxer-puncher Fernando Montiel and brutal punher Alexander Munoz have to be considered in the mix as well, Darchinyan has established himself very solidly in the top three of the division.

Darchinyan has now unified three 115 lb belts with the KO win, and it looks to me that there are only two big fights remaining to be made in the division. The first is another boxer-puncher matchup between Darchinyan and Montiel and the second is a slug-out between Darchinyan and Munoz. Clearly, Montiel (considered Mijares' closest rival prior to Darchinyan's upset KO) has to be considered to have priority over Munoz, who has lost a decision to Mijares earlier in 2008. One almost has to consider Darchinyan has a legitimate 50/50 chance to beat either man, though both present their own challenges. Fernando Montiel is a tremendous athlete still in the prime of his physical talents, both an exceptionally fast boxer and a decent hitter who has shown knockout power. Exactly the kind of opponent (Donaire) who knocked Darchinyan out. Yet Darchinyan has shown improvement in the areas Montiel would be expected to exploit, promising the strong possibility of a classic fight. Munoz, a murderous puncher in his own right and the naturally bigger man at 115, has to be acknowledged to have a very good chance of really beating Darchinyan up if Vic isn't a real 115 lber. Yet Munoz's own losses in big fights have to be considered.

I was wrong. I think Vic Darchinyan is officially a legitimate power at 115 lbs with at least an equal chance against the men I believe to the other two top fighters of the division.

The question must now arise of the 115 lb championship. No, Darchinyan was not ranked #2 or #3 coming into this fight and Cristian Mijares was not already The Ring's champion. By the originally published policy of The Ring, unifying all three major titles (WBA, WBC, and IBF) should qualify Darchinyan as the undisputed 115 lb champion. This was good enough for Roy Jones Junior, who never faced The Ring's #1 light heavyweight until his first fight with Antonio Tarver. It should be good enough for Darchinyan. If they have published a rules change since, I missed that issue. Anyone who does know of such a rules change, please cite it for me.

In closing, not only was I wrong about Vic Darchinyan's chances against Mijares, but I think he is the deserving 115 lb champion.