Darchinyan batters Barcelona in IBO title romp
It was a cold, damp night in Sydney, but at the Parramatta Leagues Club a storm was steadily rising and slowly brewing. That storm was the first appearance on home soil in two and a half years for unified super-flyweight world champion Vic Darchinyan. The job that was awaiting him was not expected to keep him busy for long or as the boxing folk call it, a tune-up fight.
Standing in the opposite corner was tough Filipino journeyman Eric Barcelona, an iron chinned import that was brought in to showcase Darchinyan's power, speed and finesse; a tough enough opponent that would give Darchinyan a chance to get in some rounds and pick up a title in his second attempt in the bantamweight division.
At the conclusion of twelve rounds, "The Raging Bull" certainly bagged the prize he set his eyes on. But between the first and last bells, Darchinyan was made to fight much harder than anybody had expected.
Darchinyan, who is a regular headline act in almost all of his fights in the US, had a sizeable portion of the sell-out crowd on his side, largely due to his trainer/promoter Angelo Hyder's links to the Parramatta Eels football club and his Armenian faithful which came out en masse for Darchinyan's so called homecoming fight. The fans got what they had come for, twelve rounds of brawling that so far is the front-runner for the Australian fight of the year. Coming into the fight, there had been rumours that Darchinyan was nursing a damaged left hand, but took the fight regardless as he didn't want to disappoint his legions of fans.
Darchinyan started confidently, seemingly showing no respect for Barcelona as he walked forward in almost arrogant fashion. However, being on the away turf didn't seem to bother Barcelona, the Valencia City resident who, like Darchinyan also pressed forward looking to impose his will.
If Darchinyan didn't respect Barcelona's power coming into the fight, he certainly found did after three rounds when he was caught by a lunging left-hand from Barcelona. However, Darchinyan rallied back, imposing his will on Barcelona while digging in some potentially vicious shots to the ribcages of Barcelona. Just when it seemed like the Filipino was gaining momentum, Darchinyan, who is a notoriously slow starter knocked down Barcelona in the third round from what appeared to be a slip. However, there was no doubting the second shot fired by Darchinyan, a perfectly timed right uppercut that placed Barcelona firmly on the seat of his pants.
Barcelona's run of bad luck continued in the sixth when he had points deducted for low blows, the low blows were of course not deliberate but more an aftermath of Barcelona's lunging stance. The Filipino was game throughout the fight and at times had the tired Darchinyan back peddling and seemingly out of answers. Although he clearly trailed on the scorecards, Barcelona attempted a rally in the championship rounds appearing to hurt or stagger the Darchinyan before being caught in a rally and floored heavily. Darchinyan charged in for the finish, but was unlucky to have the bell beat him to what looked like a sure-fire stoppage victory.
The unified super-flyweight champion closed the show in impressive fashion, stunning Barcelona before the two fighters ended proceedings going toe to toe until the final bell. A delighted home-crowd were on their feet, this time not only applauding Darchinyan's efforts but also the efforts of the tough Filipino who proved that even against the best opposition, an import can never be counted out.
Darchinyan was announced a unanimous points winner by two ridiculous scorecards of 120-103 and 118-105, with the final judge scoring the fight 116-108. FIGHT GAME also scored the bout 116-108 for Darchinyan, whose record improved to 35-2-1, (27 KOs). Barcelona's record fell to 51-18-2, (17 KOs) who still kept the incredible feat of never being stopped in his seventeen losses.
Whenever a big-punching fighter fails to score a knockout, his power and pedigree will begin to be questioned, unfortunately this will be no different for highly regarded super-featherweight prospect "Wild" Will Tomlinson (13-0-1, 10 KOs), who failed to impress against once-beaten Paraguayan Ramon Elizer Esperanza (13-2-1, 6 KOs) in the semi-main event of the evening.
Tomlinson came into the fight fresh off his unanimous points victory over previously unbeaten Oscar Bravo on the Danny Green-Manny Siaca undercard for the IBO Inter-Continental super-featherweight title just over four weeks earlier. In that fight Tomlinson was forced to go the distance for the second time in his professional career but for also the second successive fight.
One-sided fights and mismatches are common place in boxing with many fighters avoiding the best while still managing to build up their records against less than credible opposition. Tomlinson is currently in a division that boasts only nine other fighters excluding himself, five of which turned professional in the last two years; so it's fair to say that its relatively slim pickings in the super-featherweight division here in Australia, meaning that when it comes to picking opponents their almost always going to be coming from abroad.
With imported opponents it is a bit of a mixed bag with many factors coming into play, Tomlinson's Paraguayan opponent Ramon Elizer Esperanza looked like a decent challenge on paper but when fight time came it was almost immediately evident that this was not going to be the case. From the opening bell Esperanza fought from a very unorthodox stance, one very similar to that of a kickboxer as he danced around the ring, occasionally trading with Tomlinson.
Esperanza's best moment came in the opening thirty-seconds, when he appeared to catch Tomlinson coming forward with a left uppercut that cut the Blacktown resident's lip. Once the Paraguayan's best moment had passed, the fight turned into a wrestling match that was all Tomlinson up until the fourth round.
Given that the fight was only scheduled for six-rounds, Tomlinson aggressively stalked Esperanza, looking for the overhand right which was thrown – and missed several times in the opening three rounds. Tomlinson's timing appeared to be a bit off but the unorthodox style of Esperanza was a large contributing factor also. The fighters barely traded, and when they did it usually ended with Esperanza on the floor or with Tomlinson's head underneath the Paraguayan's armpit. With less than a minute remaining in the fourth round, referee Anthony Shipley disqualified Esperanza declaring a clearly frustrated Tomlinson the winner via disqualification.
Hopefully this will be the last time Tomlinson is scheduled to fight any less than ten-rounds as he no longer appears suited to the distance; Tomlinson appears likely to challenge for the vacant IBO super-featherweight title mid-year, possibly around July.
Talented, former top ten world rated super-featherweight William Kickett (16-2, 5 KOs) made his highly anticipated return after almost twelve months of inactivity against Indonesian Roy Tua Manihuruk (8-5-2, 7 KOs). Kickett's last fight was a competitive stoppage loss to one of Golden Boy Promotions leading young talents, undefeated lightweight Adrien Broner in June 2009 on the undercard of Victor Ortiz-Marcos Maidana.
Manihuruk showed early signs of promise, unleashing a looping overhand right that seemed to carry alot of power, but from then onwards Kickett won every minute of every round before cutting loose in the last round, landing sharp combinations and using a neat repertoire of punches. Of the Indonesian visitors eight wins, seven had come by knockout so it was clear early on that he definitely packed some power.
However, any chance of a stoppage victory for Manihuruk evaporated as soon as Kickett got started. Kickett's workrate was impressive for a fighter that was coming off a twelve-month lay-off. Fighting more aggressively than usual, Kickett dominated the fight and dictated the pace en route to a lopsided four-round decision. If the performance didn't please everyone, it was because he couldn't knock out Manihuruk. But Kickett, won every minute of every round is not seen as a puncher and the normally defensive-minded fighter kept after the Indonesian until the final bell in a masterful performance.
From the second round onwards, Kickett made Manihuruk look like a second-class opponent as he landed sharp punches to his head, dominating a fighter who looked promising early. Manihuruk tried his best, but couldn't match the speed of the 23-year-old Kickett, who grew more comfortable with each passing round.
In other results, Naoufel Ben Rabah (30-3, 15 KOs) continued his impressive unbeaten streak since returning to Australia with a one-sided unanimous points victory over upset-minded Filipino Rey Anton Olarte (10-14-3, 1 KO) in their welterweight showdown.
Olarte never came close to Rabah, who on several occasions looked like he was on the verge of knocking down Olarte. Rabah is usually criticized for being too defensively during his fights, so you have to give him credit for pushing the action from the beginning all the way through to the final bell. However, before long the old "Chocolata" was back, picking his shots and countering as he slipped almost all of Olarte's punches.
In the end, Olarte just couldn't keep up with Rabah, who looked fresh for almost the entire fight, while Olarte appeared visibly fatigued very early on. As the rounds passed, Rabah grew more and more confident, and had the fight won on points by the halfway point.
The other notable result of the evening was the professional debut of big-punching heavyweight Mostyn Niemann (1-0, 1 KO), who scored an impressive first round knockout over Carl Webb conqueror Scott Lewis (2-4, 1 KO).
Niemann came out showing a cool head and controlled aggression against Lewis who looked a little nervous at the outset. Niemann ended the bout after three heavy knockdowns, two of which came from devastating left-handed body shots.