56 Facts About Vic Darchinyan

Vakhtang "Vic" Darchinyan is an Armenian former professional boxer who competed from 2000 to 2017.

Vic Darchinyan held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the International Boxing Federation flyweight title from 2004 to 2007, and the unified super-flyweight championship between 2008 and 2010.

Vic Darchinyan held the lineal super-flyweight title from 2009 to 2011, and a record four International Boxing Organization titles at flyweight, super-flyweight, and twice at bantamweight between 2005 and 2011.

Vic Darchinyan was born on 7 January 1976, in Vanadzor, Armenia.

Vic Darchinyan's father, Ruben Darchinyan, was an Olympic wrestling coach for Armenia.

Vic Darchinyan wanted to become a boxer at the age of 5 and dreamed of becoming a world champion in the professionals.

Vic Darchinyan's father told him there was no professional boxing in Armenia and instead wanted Vic to follow in his footsteps and take up wrestling.

Vic Darchinyan wrestled as a kid, but always continued to say he would become a world champion someday.

Vic Darchinyan eventually left wrestling in pursuit of his dream to become a world boxing champion.

Vic Darchinyan began boxing at the age of 8 within the community of Vanadzor, where boxing was very popular.

Vic Darchinyan fought in many different countries and participated for Armenia in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.

Vic Darchinyan moved to Australia after competing in the Olympics and eventually became an Australian citizen later in the same year.

Vic Darchinyan turned pro at the age of 24 on 3 November 2000.

Vic Darchinyan won a bronze medal at the 1998 European Amateur Boxing Championships in Minsk.

Vic Darchinyan won a bronze medal at the 1998 Goodwill Games.

Vic Darchinyan won his IBF title on 16 December 2004 in his first fight in the United States, defeating respected then-undefeated champion Irene Pacheco of Colombia, via 11th round technical knock-out.

Vic Darchinyan knocked him out with a single straight left in the 8th round.

Vic Darchinyan stopped the tough Mexican in the 8th round.

Glenn gave up during the fight, claiming Vic Darchinyan broke his jaw in the 6th round from an alleged elbow attack.

Vic Darchinyan knocked Burgos down in the second round and stopped him in the twelfth round.

On 7 July 2007, Vic Darchinyan suffered his first defeat from Nonito Donaire, younger brother of Glenn Donaire, in a title bout via TKO.

Vic Darchinyan was caught with a left hook which floored him, in an exchange with Donaire in the fifth round.

Vic Darchinyan managed to get up but immediately fell on the ropes and the referee stopped the fight.

Vic Darchinyan lost the IBF and IBO flyweight titles to Donaire.

Vic Darchinyan returned three months later and won the vacant IBO super flyweight title by stopping Filipino veteran Federico Catubay.

Vic Darchinyan decided to outbox and outpunch his larger opponent and finally finished him off in round 12.

Vic Darchinyan voluntarily relinquished the IBO title prior to fighting in an IBF eliminator.

On 2 February 2008, Vic Darchinyan fought Z Gorres to a controversial split draw at the Waterfront Hotel in Cebu City, Philippines in an IBF Super Flyweight Eliminator where the winner would challenge the champion Dimitri Kirilov.

Six months later, Vic Darchinyan was back in what most experts called a career-best performance, taking on IBF super flyweight champion Dimitri Kirilov on 2 August 2008 at the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma Washington.

Vic Darchinyan dominated from the opening bell and showed an improvement in speed and boxing skill.

Vic Darchinyan eventually caught Kirilov in round 5, dropping him twice en route to a round KO.

On 1 November 2008, Vic Darchinyan fought WBC and WBA super flyweight champion Cristian Mijares at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California.

Vic Darchinyan was the aggressor from the outset, getting inside with big punches, including a left uppercut that knocked Mijares down in the first round.

Vic Darchinyan became the first man in history to unify the titles in the weight class.

Vic Darchinyan successfully defended his unified WBC, WBA, IBF and lineal titles on 7 February 2009 against multiple time champion Jorge Arce, winning by TKO in the 11th round.

The early rounds were somewhat competitive, but as each round progressed, Vic Darchinyan asserted his dominance more and more.

On 12 December 2009, having vacated his IBF belt in an unsuccessful attempt to move up to bantamweight, Vic Darchinyan successfully defended his unified WBC, WBA and lineal titles against interim champion Tomas Rojas, winning by KO in the 2nd round.

On 6 March 2010, Vic Darchinyan successfully defended his unified WBC and WBA titles against Rodrigo Guerrero, winning a unanimous decision.

In June 2009, Vic Darchinyan was rated the No 8 best pound for pound boxer in the world by The Ring.

Vic Darchinyan lost a unanimous decision in a fight he looked almost too overly aggressive in and was picked at with straight right hands.

On 20 May 2010, Darchinyan won the vacant IBO bantamweight title with a one-sided unanimous decision victory in his adopted land of Australia over Eric Barcelona.

Vic Darchinyan lost in the semi-finals on 11 December 2010 against Mexico's Mares via controversial split decision.

Vic Darchinyan was knocked down once in the seventh round out of pain from low blows.

On 3 September 2011, for a homecoming bout in Armenia, Vic battered tough African contender Evans Mbamba for twelve one-sided rounds, maintaining the mandatory WBA No 1 position and gaining WBO No 1 spot shortly after.

Vic Darchinyan was docked one point in round four for throwing Moreno to the ground.

On 6 April 2012, Vic Darchinyan lost to WBC bantamweight champion Shinsuke Yamanaka in Yamanaka's home country of Japan.

Vic Darchinyan was slightly ahead on one card and the other two were even after the fourth round.

Vic Darchinyan, fighting with blood in his eyes for the rest of the fight, lost via decision.

The headbutt and elbow thrown by Yamanaka had raised much controversy, as Vic Darchinyan was winning the fight beforehand and his performance seemed to slow down as consequence.

Vic Darchinyan moved up in weight class afterwards and, on 29 September 2012, defeated Luis Del Valle to win the vacant NABF super bantamweight title.

The 37-year-old Vic Darchinyan gave the 30-year-old Donaire a lot more trouble than was expected, as this was intended to be an easy bounce-back fight for Donaire who was coming off his first loss in over a decade.

Vic Darchinyan fought a smarter fight and confused a sluggish Donaire for much of the first 8 rounds, but in the 9th round was dropped and got up to be finished by TKO.

Vic Darchinyan won his next fight against Juan Jimenez by TKO in the 9th round.

The bout took place on 7 February 2015 in Mexico, the seventh country Vic Darchinyan had fought in.

Vic Darchinyan fought WBA featherweight titleholder Jesus Cuellar on 6 June 2015 and lost by 8th-round TKO.

Vic Darchinyan has confirmed his next fight will be his last and expressed interest in one more big fight against Evgeny Gradovich in Russia or Carl Frampton in England.