In a busy night of boxing, it was Vic Darchinyan who stole the spotlight. Not everybody believed Darchinyan's assertion that he'd knock out Christian Mijares, one of the world's top fighters, but in the ninth round he did just that.
This may have been the single best performance of Vic Darchinyan's career. Beating a top 10ish pound-for-pound fighter, and beating him convincingly, is absolutely his biggest win. This was the best fighter he'd ever fought, and Darchinyan laid waste to Cristian Mijares. Darchinyan (31-1-1, 25 KO) is now the WBC/WBA/IBF junior bantamweight titlist after a stunningly dominant win over the favored Mijares. Showtime's Steve Albert noted that 26 of 32 boxing writers at their press thingamajig picked Mijares; almost everyone I read was picking Mijares past Darchinyan's crazy fans.
Hopefully this means that the popular Armenian will get another shot at the only man to beat him, Filipino star Nonito Donaire who successfully defended his flyweight title last night against Moruti Mthalane. Elsewhere inside the ring... Sturm is too strong for Sylvester. Felix Sturm retained his sliver of the middleweight title with a convincing decision over fellow German Sebastien Sylvester. At some point Sturm, like fellow German middleweight Arthur Abraham, is going to have to come stateside at some point to further his career. I'd bet he and John Duddy could sell some tickets in New York, but I'm obviously no Yente. Chavez Jr. gets a bit of redemption.Julio Caesar Chavez Jr. made up for a sloppy split decision against professional opponent Matt Vanda with a significantly better performance last night. The closest any of the cards got for Vanda was 97-93 in favor of JCC the Junior. Another easy win for Lamont. Like his brother Anthony, Lamont Peterson is on track for a title fight in the near future. The 24 year-old light welterweight took another step towards that future with another dominating decision, this time over Lanardo Tyner. Arce picks up another knockout.Jurge Arce, the veteran Mexican super flyweight notched the 39th KO of his career with a fourth round stoppage of Isidro Garcia to hold on to his interim WBA title. Although Arce didn't escape without getting a bit dirty himself. Bad Left Hook: Vic Darchinyan wastes Cristian Mijares with ninth round knockout