Friday, February 6, 2009

Little Guys, Loud Mouths

Vic Darchinyan and Jorge Arce square off in what figures to be a 115-pound barnburner on Saturday night in Las Vegas. Darchinyan's mouth has been in rare form during the promotion (click here or here for examples; my favorite line: "Arce is going to be my human piñata. Our fight will be like a Chihuahua against a bull, a raging bull."), while Arce's been oddly quiet. I would have loved to see this fight a few years ago, but unfortunately Arce has slowed significantly since he stopped Hussein Hussein in their first bout, on the undercard of Morales-Pacquiao I. He's been life-and-death with some average guys in his most recent bouts.

The only man to beat Darchinyan, Nonito Donaire, starched him with a huge left hook, but Donaire was winning the fight with his hand speed, and he had already tagged Darchinyan a fair amount in their five rounds together. Darchinyan will be there to be hit and he has shown a dentable chin in other bouts as well, but Arce doesn't have the handspeed, the chin, or the pop to trade with Darchinyan without getting the worst of it. I think it's a back-and-forth war for about six rounds or so, but Darchinyan will eventually take control and stop Arce late.

Record-padding: I like Chris Henry over Yusaf Mack on ESPN2 tonight (that should be a good scrap), Ruslan Chagaev over Carl Davis Drumond, and Omar Narvaez over Rayonta Whitfield, and Antonio DeMarco over Kid Diamond.

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