Boxing News

Rain and Pain at Home Depot Center

November 2, 2008

I love a rainy night! At least that’s how the old song went right? The crowds did not love it much at Home Depot Center in Carson last night but the action did not miss a beat. The main event saw a unification bout in the Super Flyweight division with the WBC/WBA/IBF straps on the line and Vic Darchinyan (30-1-1, 24 KO’s) facing off against Cristian Mijares (36-3-2, 14 KO’s). The rain kept most of the undercard low key but there was a let up before the Showtime cameras started rolling.

The co-main event featured the Super Middle Weights and saw the slick Olympian Andre “The Matrix” Dirrell (17-0, 12 KO’s) facing off against the monster puncher Victor Oganov (28-2, 28 KO’s). Oganov has been on TV before and if you have seen him once, you know him well. He is a straight ahead puncher who looks to wear down his opponent with pressure and punching power. Dirrell is the athletic, quick hitter who is precise and clean with his two handed attack. In other words, this was no contest. Oganov may have improved a bit but he is not in the same league as Dirrell and it was evident in the first round. Dirrell came out and threw about 500 punches in the first and completely set the tone for the rest of the fight. Oganov suffered a bad cut over his right in the third and his corner seemed to be void of a cut man. That hurt Oganov but it was hardly a major factor. Dirrell was too much everything and in round 6 referee Ray Corona stopped the fight albeit at an awkward moment that surprised the crowd and angered Team Oganov. Either way, Oganov was out everythinged and it was only a matter of time. Dirrell is promoted by Gary Shaw and he talked of pitting his charge against the winner of Taylor/Lacy but also mentioned that Dirrell’s advisor, Al Haymon, may not go for that big a jump this soon. It will be interesting to see how Dirrell develops, he has plenty of talent.

The highly anticipated main event did not disappoint the 3,076 in attendance. Vic “The Raging Bull” Darchinyan looked a little broader and bigger than Mijares and after a feeling out process in the first, Vic started to connect with some lefts and eventually caught Mijares with a left uppercut that sent him to the canvas. Not a good start in round one for the heavily favored Mijares. The second and third rounds were better for Mijares but he could not find a way to avoid Vic’s lefts and was obviously not as a big a puncher as Vic. Rounds 4 thru 6 were more of Vic landing and Mijares straying away from his strong suit of boxing and engaging with the puncher. Mijares had a good round 7, maybe not enough to win the round but enough to believe he was still in the fight. Round 8 was a close one as Vic pounded away again but Mijares had a few good moments. It all came crashing down for Mijares in round 9 though as Vic found a home for a huge left at the end of the round and Mijares hit the deck and would not rise again. The time was 3:00 of the 9^th round. So many people gave Darchinyan no chance of beating Mijares; I think the lesson here is that one loss does not necessarily equal a shot fighter. It depends on the loss but clearly Vic has recovered fully from the Donaire KO and his career and legacy are fully intact.

Mijares is a boxer by trade and not a puncher and he admitted after the fight that he fought more with his nuts than with his head. Mijares looked bloodied and beaten at the post fight presser but was respectful and humble in his praise of Vic. Team Darchinyan did not call out anyone in particular but did go a bit overboard when they mentioned fighting Israel Vazquez who fights 2 weight classes above Vic and has shown he can punch above his division. Darchinyan mentioned that he garnered extra motivation from all the writers that picked Mijares to win. This is another fighter in recent weeks that claims that we scribes contributed to their upset win, Bernard Hopkins also made a point of mentioning it in his win over the favored Kelly Pavlik. It’s just our opinions guys but glad to help out. Now where is my Raging Bull T-Shirt?