Vic Darchinyan stops Cristian Mijares in super flyweight title unification bout

Vic Darchinyan entered Saturday’s super flyweight unification bout against Cristian Mijares with a reputation for being a brawler with an unorthodox style.  The conventional wisdom among boxing cognoscenti was that slick Cristian Mijares would teach Darchinyan a boxing lesson en route to an easy decision victory.  When the smoke cleared, however, it hadn’t quite worked out that way.

IBF champ Darchinyan executed the fight of his career en route to a 9th round TKO stoppage of Mijares.  With the victory Darchinyan added Mijares’ WBC and WBA title belts to his collection.  Even before the stoppage it had been a bizarre role reversal with Darchinyan boxing circles around his opponent.  Mijares appeared bewildered by Darchinyan’s unorthodox style and was losing badly at the time of the stoppage.

After the fight Darchinyan wasn’t surprised by his superior tactical performance:

"I promised to show my skills and knock him out and I kept my promise. I was always confident I was the best fighter. I had beaten guys that had beaten him."

"He's not easy. He's a good fighter. But I can box, too."

The victory raised Darchinyan’s record to 31-1-1 with 25 knockouts.  Mijares dropped to 36-4-2 with 14 knockouts.