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Vic Darchinyan loses world title bout

Roar Rookie
4th December, 2011
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Australia’s Vic Darchinyan has the ring name “The Raging Bull”, but his crafty Panamanian opponent Anselmo Moreno played the master matador while cruising to victory in their World Boxing Association bantamweight title fight in California.

Darchinyan, looking for an early knockout, swung his trademark wild blows and Moreno ducked, weaved and backed away in a highly-skilled display of defensive boxing.

As 35-year-old Darchinyan, the short-priced favourite, grew frustrated and tired, the taller and younger Moreno peppered Darchinyan with accurate jabs.

The three judges were impressed and scored the lopsided unanimous points win to Moreno: 120-107, 117-110 and 116-111.

“He was ducking too much and I couldn’t fight him,” Darchinyan, his face bruised and cut, said after Saturday’s fight inside the 19,000-seat Honda Center arena in Anaheim, south of Los Angeles.

“He was going for points. He wasn’t going for the knockdown and I lost the fight.”

The 26-year-old Moreno has never been knocked down or stopped in his 34 fight professional career and revealed he set out to frustrate Darchinyan.

“I knew I was going to frustrate and dominate him,” Moreno, who won the WBA belt in 2008 and has defended it nine times, said.

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Moreno is eyeing a fight with Mexican-born Abner Mares who retained his International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Council bantamweight titles with a unanimous points decision against Ghana’s Joseph Agbeko in the main event at the Honda Center.

The future does not look so bright for Darchinyan who earlier in his career dominated the flyweight and super flyweight divisions, but since moving up to bantamweight in 2009 has lost to Agbeko, Mares and now Moreno.

On Wednesday Darchinyan announced he would fight a mixed martial arts bout in 2012, drawing on the wrestling skills he developed growing up in Armenia under the guidance of his father, an Olympic wrestling coach.

Darchinyan drops to a 37 win (27 KO), four loss, one draw professional record.

Moreno, promoted by boxing great Oscar De La Hoya, improves to a 32 win (11 KO), one loss, one draw record.

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