One-sided fights needed quicker stoppages

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Vic Darchinyan wasn't shy in voicing his opinion before the fight that Jorge Arce would have no chance to defeat him Saturday in their battle for his WBA, WBC and IBF super flyweight titles at the Honda Center.

By the eighth round, the scorecards were saying the same thing.

Arce bravely trudged forward, trying to give the 5,450 fans who had paid their way in on a cold, wet night the back-and-forth brawl they were hoping to see.

All he got for his efforts were a series of flush shots to the head by one of the hardest punchers in the division.

Arce finally got a break after the 11th round when ringside physician Paul Wallace didn't like the looks of a gnarly cut Darchinyan had opened around Arce's right eye and recommended to referee Lou Moret that the fight be stopped.

Arce, of course, complained and later said before making a trip to a local hospital that he should have been able to try for a miracle knockout in the final round.

"I hit him with some body shots in the fight, and I can punch," Arce said. "I wanted to come out for the 12th round and try."

After a brief stop at the postfight news conference, Arce left the Honda Center on a stretcher and was being administered oxygen, apparently complaining about pain in the back of his head.

Arce's promoter, Bob Arum, moaned about Moret, saying the referee was unable to keep pace with two much younger, faster fighters.

The real problem, though, was that neither Moret nor Arce's corner seemed to grasp that Darchinyan essentially had won the fight by the time the bell sounded to end the seventh round and that Arce had about as much of a chance to score a dramatic knockout as Pete Rose does to make the Baseball Hall of Fame.

All three judges had it scored 109-100, giving Darchinyan 10 of the 11 rounds.

Darchinyan was nothing short of brilliant and showed speed and defensive ability that many didn't know he possessed, along with the pulverizing power that has made him one of the terrors of the lighter weight classes.

"He's really one of the best-kept secrets in boxing, but people are starting to realize now," Darchinyan promoter Gary Shaw said. "He's not one-dimensional. People know about his power, but you saw more than just a heavy-handed guy tonight. He was controlling the ring and you saw him walking Arce right into those punches."

Neither Arce nor his corner had an answer for it. Arce never made any adjustments, and all his corner could advise him to do was not to give up.

He never did, but he paid a brutal price for it. He is fortunate to have been able to walk from the ring under his own power because those long fights when a boxer is getting hit with clean blows but does not go down are the ones in which tragedies occur.

Every fighter takes a risk when he steps into the ring, but rarely does one blow create a tragedy. The next time you watch a fight on television and see a man take shot after shot after shot and keep coming forward, instead of wondering what is keeping him on his feet, think of someone like Jimmy Garcia or Leavander Johnson.

They were two of the many boxers who were too brave for their own good in the ring and gave their own lives as a result. They both took many blows over the course of a long fight.

"At some point, you have to ask, 'What's the point?' " Shaw said of allowing the fight to continue as Darchinyan was racking up round after round.

Arum wasn't pleased with Arce's corner, although it had nothing to do with its failure to stop the fight.

Rather, Arum was bemoaning the fact that in his 57th professional fight, Arce had no clue how to box a left-hander. Arum said it was obvious that trainer Tiburcio Garcia had done nothing to teach him even the basics.

"I wasn't concerned about [the number of punches] he was taking, though I will admit he clearly lost the fight," Arum said of Arce. "He doesn't know how to fight a left-hander. Someone has to teach him. He didn't do [well] with [Cristian] Mijares, and he didn't do it here.

"He's a gutty guy, and considering he has no clue how to fight a left-hander, I think he did well to stay in there. … I talked to them about it before the fight, and they told me they were teaching him and this and that. But he was moving the wrong way. It's basic boxing. Give him a training camp with someone like Freddie Roach, who I think is the best trainer, and it's a different fighter."

On another night with another trainer, perhaps Arce would have a chance. But he had no chance on this night, and the corner's biggest failing – more than not teaching him how to fight a left-hander – was that it didn't fulfill its basic duty to look out for its man's health and welfare.

Garcia and his assistants repeatedly allowed Arce to go out and get caught by concussive blows in a fight he had no chance to win.

It long has been a problem in boxing that the seconds are far too brave for their fighter's good and send him into a battle he can't possibly win.

Darchinyan was spectacular and deserves all the accolades he'll receive in the coming weeks. And Arce was as courageous as any man who ever put on a pair of gloves and stepped between the ropes.

But Arce was let down on Saturday by the men he paid to look out for him. Roach, who was seated at ringside, is a hot commodity among trainers now because of his work with pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao, among others.

He also is a victim of induced Parkinson's disease, a condition he developed as a result of his boxing career. Simply put, Roach took far too many blows to the head.

Nearly 20 years after his last fight, it's mind-boggling that another situation like that might be allowed to occur.