General

Round by Round: Weekly Boxing Notes

Feb 6, 2009, 8:09 PM UTC

Little Guys, Big Talk
â†µThe big fight of the weekend involves too very small bigmouths, Jorge Arce and Vic Darchinyan, in a battle for three alphabet straps at super fly, a.k.a. 115 pounds. The festivities get under way tomorrow night at 9 p.m. EST at the pond in Anaheim with Showtime televising. â†µâ†µWhat’s really at stake here is not a question of titles, but bragging rights, because these two mighty mouths have been letting fly with the braggin’ and a-dissin’ in the build-up to this thing. Some nuggets:â†µ

â†µâ†µVic: “He (Arce) has been hit in the head so much. He is not very smart for a boxer. He is dumb. And I am going to make him look dumb.” â†µ

â†µâ†µArce: “Darchinyan’s greatest strength is his mouth. His biggest weakness is his chin.”â†µ

â†µâ†µVic: “I am not going for the big KO early. I’m going to punish him, let him recover, then I am going to punish him some more. Then I will knock him out.”â†µ

â†µâ†µArce: “I hope he stands there and fights for a while so I can really hurt him.”â†µ

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â†µThough they have no crossover profile whatsoever in the mainstream sports world, Darchinyan and Arce have long been two of the most colorful fighters in boxing. They are bold, arrogant and crazy to a fault, in many ways the mirror image of each other. Between their propensity for quotable foofaraw, their dedication to the manly art of no defense and their one-punch knockout power, each has managed to become a marquee attraction as a sub-120-pounder, no small feat. And each has had the trajectory of his career derailed by a single loss in fights that occurred within months of each other, Darchinyan by a stunning KO at the hands of Nonito Donaire in July of 2007, and Arce by overwhelming decision to Crisitan Mijares in April of 2007.â†µ

â†µâ†µIt is the common opponent of Mijares that has gotten the most focus in the analysis of a Darchinyan/Arce match-up, because where the slick-boxing Mijares dominated Arce, Darchinyan dominated Mijares last November before knocking him out in the ninth round and making off with his three super flyweight titles. â†µ

â†µâ†µBoxing’s commutative property would thus have it that Vic should have an easy time with Arce. Then again, that commutative property is rarely to be relied on in matters of the fist. For evidence of that, I refer you to the shocker of two weeks ago, when Sugar Shane Mosley, who had lost a decision to Miguel Cotto, completely annihilated Tony Margarito, who had knocked Cotto out. â†µ

â†µâ†µThere simply is no logarithm to solve the intricate mathematics of bloodshed. Each case is circumstantially particular and without precedent (unless it is a rematch). In the case of Darchinyan vs. Arce, I think there is only one prediction that we can take to the bank. To quote the portentous gods of Tinseltown, there will be blood.â†µ

â†µâ†µNigel Benn Showers Calzaghe with Praise
â†µIn the British newspaper, The Sun, former middleweight and super-middleweight champion, Nigel Benn, is quoted as saying that now retired Welsh fighter Joe Calzaghe would have beaten Roberto Duran, Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler and Tommy Hearns in their primes. â†µ

â†µâ†µBenn also throws in that he thinks Calzaghe would have beaten Nigel Benn, which I must say is about the only of his retrospective predictions that I agree with. Why, exactly, Sir Nigel feels the need to stack up Calzaghe, who fought his entire career at 168 pounds and above, against the likes of Leonard and Hearns and Duran, who were at their very best at 147 and below, is unclear to me. Ray Leonard did campaign at 168 very late in his career, and Tommy Hearns went as high as 175. You put Calzaghe against either man at those weights and yes, I think it’s very likely that Calzaghe wins. â†µ

â†µâ†µBut it’s inarguable to me that if you put Calzaghe up against the Hearns or the Leonard who fought Hagler at 160 pounds, he gets beaten. You put Calzaghe up against Hagler at 160 and he gets seriously injured. All three of those guys were in a different class altogether than the Welshman. Calzaghe was a very entertaining fighter, no doubt, but he chose for the better part of his career to be a big fish in a small pond, owning the sparse pickings of the super-middleweights while all the real talent resided either at middleweight or light heavy. He never once in his career faced an opponent of the caliber of any of the Leonard/Hearns/Hagler trio, a trio that, I might add, all fought devastating wars against each other that lie at the core of their claims to immortality. â†µ

â†µâ†µI reiterate from my piece on Calzaghe’s retirement yesterday -- his greatest moment is a unanimous decision over Mikkel Kessler. It was a satisfying victory without question, but not one that can support a claim to all-time greatness.â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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