In one of the previous editions of “168 Hours”, we infromed our readers that boxer Vakhtang (Vic) Darchinyan is getting ready to sign a contract with well-known American promoter Garry Show. Vakhtang has already signed the contract and the world famous boxing web site SecondsOut.com wrote an article about this yesterday. The following is the article on the web site.
IBF/IBO flyweight world champion Vic “Raging Bull” Darchinyan has signed with leading American promoter Gary Shaw and will defend his titles against Diosdado Gabi from the Philippines on March 3 at the Chumash Casino in California, USA. Signing with Shaw will make it much easier for the Armenian born Australian citizen to secure the big fights he has targeted in the USA.
“Vic can be a great multi-division world champion,” Shaw told SecondsOut on Thursday. “It’s just that nobody knows he exists right now. As soon as people know he exists, it will be a completely different story for him.”
Trained by three-time world champion Jeff Fenech, southpaw Darchinyan 24-0 (19) was unique in that he was unattached to any major promoter despite his world title success.
“I think signing Vic is better than finding a diamond,” said Shaw. “His manager Robert Joske called me and they have a lot of confidence in me. I knew about Vic. I spoke with him a few times on the telephone and when I got the chance to sign him, I didn’t want to pass.”
30 year-old Darchinyan has previously targeted WBC Interim flyweight champion Jorge Arce 43-3-1 (33) for a big fight in the USA. Darchinyan and Fenech travelled to Mexico last week to see Arce’s win over Adonis Rivas.
“I’m going to try and put Vic and Arce together,” said Shaw. “I believe that Vic can beat Arce. I’m seeing Bob Arum today and I will be speaking with him about a fight with Arce. He is the guy who you would want to fight and he is the one guy in that weight class right now who is getting all the press. Arce is the guy I want Vic to fight. Then what I’d want to do is maybe bring up Brian Viloria from 108 and let him challenge Vic for a flyweight title. After that, Luis Perez is a great fighter, Martin Castillo at 115 and Fernando Montiel. There are a lot of great fights for Vic. He will need more than one fight to become a star, even if he beats Arce. But he has got to get through his fight on March 3 with Gabi (26-2-1, 18) first, then we will have more to talk about.”
Shaw also promotes Filipino super-star Manny Pacquiao and American super middleweight Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy, who has many things in common with Darchinyan. Both are current world champions, holding the IBF and IBO titles. Both represented their countries at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney and both are undefeated with a tendency to knock their opponents out.
“I think Vic is one of these unknown commodities, like Manny Pacquiao was a couple of years ago,” explained Shaw. “When people see him fight, they will wake up like they did with Manny. I believe Vic is very underrated and I am really excited to have him as part of my team. I think we are going to do some big things together.”