Darchinyan:
"Mexico, Kiss Your Arce Good-Bye!"

World super flyweight champion and Fighter of the Year candidate VIC "Raging Bull" DARCHINYAN is ready to defend his crown by kicking a little Arce, as they say Down Under. Darchinyan (31-1-1, 25 KOs), from Sydney, Australia by way of his native Vanadzok, Armenia, will be making the first defense of his newly unified titles against WBA interim super flyweight champion Jorge Arce (51-4-1, 38 KOs), of Los Mochis, Mexico. Promoted by Gary Shaw Productions and Top Rank, Darchinyan vs. Arce will take place on Saturday, February 7, 2009 and will be televised live on SHOWTIME Championship Boxing.

"I can't get enough of Mexican fighters. They bounce real good off the canvas when I hit them," boasted Darchinyan. "Let's see, I've stopped Cristian Mijares, Victor Burgos and Luis Maldonado over the past two years. Unlike Jorge Arce, those three fighters were very tough hombres.. Defeating Arce won't take much training. It won't even be a fight for me --more like pest control. I'm going to swat that Spanish Fly. How do you take a guy like Arce seriously? He sucks on lollipops and wears a cowboy hat from a toy store. He looks like "Woody" from the movie "Toy Story." I can picture him running around his house on a broom pretending he's riding a horse. He's a regular Schlepalong Cassidy. When I finally meet him at the press conference do I say "Hola Jorge" or "Howdy, Doody?" Arce is going to be my human piñata. Our fight will be like a Chihuahua against a bull...a raging bull!"


Darchinyan, the former IBF/IBO flyweight champion, unified his IBF junior bantamweight title with Mijares' WBC/WBA super flyweight belts on November 1, knocking him out at the end of the ninth-round of their November 1 rumble at The Home Depot Center. Televised live by SHOWTIME, Darchinyan became the first man in the history of the 115-pound division to unify the three major belts. Darchinyan's victory ended Mijares' (35-4-2, 13 KOs), two-year title run and nine-bout winning streak