In one of the most powerful performances of his career, two-division world champion Vic “Raging Bull” Darchinyan dominated former IBF bantamweight titlist Yonnhy “El Colombiano” Perez en route to winning a fifth-round technical decision and the vacant IBO 118-pound title Saturday on SHOWTIME®. The diminutive Darchinyan was in total command from the outset of a scheduled 12-round bout at Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE, scored a knockdown in the second and was ahead 50-44 on the three scorecards when the one-sided slugfest was halted due to an accidental headbutt at 1:44 of the round.
Southpaw Darchinyan, of Sydney, Australia, by way of Armenia, improved to 36-3-1 with 27 knockouts while Colombia’s Perez, of Santa Fe Springs, Calif., fell to 20-2-1 with 14 KOs after losing his second consecutive start.
“He took big punches,” Darchinyan said afterward, quoted by fightnews.com. “I wanted to knock him out, but he is still a great fighter. It was a headbutt. But if it wasn’t a headbutt, I’d knock him out. No more boxing in my style. Today I’d fight anyone in the division. I’d like to fight Abner Mares if he’d fight me. If not, I’ll fight Nonito Donaire. If they won’t fight me, I’ll move up to another division.”
