Vic ‘‘Raging Bull’’ Darchinyan started the year with great expectations. Coming off a standout flogging of pin-up boy Cristian Mijares in November last year that made him the first undisputed super-flyweight world champion, Darchinyan planned to join Jeff Fenech as the only Australian to win three world titles in three weight divisions. Darchinyan wanted to use the bantamweight division as a stepping stone to big-money clashes in the super-bantamweight (junior featherweight) division, where he hoped to eclipse Fenech’s record by winning his fourth world title. The year began on a good note when, with the IBF, WBA and WBF super-flyweight titles to his name, he fought Mexican champion Jorge Arce. Darchinyan proved too strong for the veteran, and the fight was stopped after the 11th round. He then moved to bantamweight but lost to Ghana’s Joseph Agbeko, the IBF world champion. He is due to return to the super-flyweight ranks in December when he will put his WBF and WBA super-flyweight world titles (he relinquished the IBF belt in July) on the line against Tomas Rojas. Stathi Paxinos
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