Darchinyan: Little Guy, Large Mouth

Vic Darchinyan has something to say. This is not a new occurrence.

Saturday night the IBF super flyweight champion intends to knock out smooth boxing WBC and WBA titleholder Cristian Mijares. This is not only something he says he will do but it’s something he now insists would have already happened if he could speak Spanish himself.

“The last press conference I was speaking in English and everyone understood what I was saying,’’ Darchinyan growled recently. “Mijares was speaking in Spanish and not in English (which kind of figures since he’s from Mexico) but after I found out he was not translating everything. He said something in Mexican (or maybe Spanish?) that I’m talking because I’m afraid of him.

“If I know he’s talking like that, I would knock him out in that moment. If I’m scared I’m going to show on November 1st what I’m going to do to you. I’m going to break you in half! No one will remember him after I finish him.’’

In the end this may not prove to be factual but it is the way Darchinyan sees the world. Every day is a fight for him and every fighter someone who needs to be destroyed. Maybe when you grew up in a difficult place like Armenia in the years of Russian oppression and you weigh only 114 pounds to boot that’s how you look at things to survive. You look for a fight and you let the world know it.

Or, then again, maybe Victor Darchinyan is just a bad guy?

“I’m a bad guy?’’ he thunders at the thought of it. “Why I’m a bad guy? All Armenians know it’s going to be me (winning) in Los Angeles. I become the undisputed world champion. I’m going to deliver that night.’’

Mijares (35-3-2, 13 KO) is on most pound-for-pound lists because of his nearly perfect technical skills and his ability to use them to daunt and dominate opponents. That’s what he did to a similarly trash talking Jorge Arce a year and a half ago and it is what he has promised to do to Darchinyan Saturday night at the Home Depot Center outside of Los Angeles.

Darchinyan hears this kind of talk and loses his mind, assuming he has one to lose. He talks like a madman and pretty much fights the same way. This has made him not only a two-time world champion but also a fighter who is both hugely popular and wholly reviled, depending on what crowd you’re talking to.

“People are talking about the Mexican crowd (in LA),’’ Darchinyan yaps pugnaciously. “After two rounds you’re not going to hear any Mexican crowd. You’re only going to hear Armenian crowd.’’

In Los Angeles?

“A few rounds after that you’re going to see Mexican crowd supporting me,’’ he continued. “Of course they’ll like my style. They don’t like people who are just touching and running.

“He is only talk. I’m going to prove that he’s nothing. I wish his corner the best in the fight because he’s going to be badly damaged.’’

Anyone can talk like this before a fight but when your record is 30-1-1 with 24 knockouts, such threats carry a bit more weight. That’s true even if you carry only 114 pounds. Say what you will about Victor Darchinyan, he comes not only with a heavy tongue but also with heavy hands and bad intentions.

He will bring all of these into the ring with him Saturday night. Now whether they will often land on Mijares is another matter altogether but it’s not one that Darchinyan feels compelled to discuss.

He dismisses Mijares’ boxing skills as equivalent to running away and he seems blind to the possibility that what befell Arce could ever happen to him.

Arce, too, came into the Mijares fight believing he could rely on his own heavy hands. He felt once he landed a few times the issue would be decided. Well, A) he’s still waiting to land a few times and B) the issue was decided – in a lopsided manner for Mijares.

Jorge Arce talked big but when the fight came he carried a little stick and it seldom landed. By the end, he was utterly frustrated by Mijares’ quickness and style to the point where he became a broken and beaten man. Could the WBC-WBA champion not be capable of doing the same thing to Darchinyan, who seems cut from the same cloth as Arce?

Wash your mouth out with Armenian soap!

“I’m going to make him look like a very silly fighter,’’ Darchinyan said when Arce’s sad fate was brought up. “I’m going to knock him out. You’re going to see how he is after this fight. You say my style is very, very awkward. I know what I’m doing!

“I just hope he’ll stay in the ring and not throw in the towel and stop fighting. You’re going to see very big punishment (if Mijares does stand and fight). He’s going to be punished. He won’t fight for a couple of years.’’

With the volume at which Victor Darchinyan talks, if Cristian Mijares doesn’t fight for a couple of years after Saturday night it might be from an ear infection.

“You’ll see!’’ Darchinyan snaps again. “I’m not just strong fighter. I’m a smart fighter. He’s overrated. I’m going to prove it. I’m going to fight him like there’s not going to be any more fights.’’

More than likely Cristian Mijares is going to fight him in the hope that there won’t be any more press conferences.