Vic Darchinyan: I Have To Be Patient Against Moreno

By Keith Idec

Anselmo Moreno has lost just once in his nine years as a professional boxer.

That defeat came in his eighth fight, a four-rounder in October 2002 against an opponent Moreno stopped in their rematch and beat again by unanimous decision. 

Vic Darchinyan still doesn’t think there’s anything special about Panama’s Moreno, the WBA’s super champion at 118 pounds. The confident Armenian slugger sees Moreno, a fellow southpaw, as a minor obstacle in his path toward rematches against Abner Mares or Joseph Agbeko, both of whom out-pointed Darchinyan in closely contested bantamweight title fights. 

“He’s a good fighter,” Darchinyan said of Moreno, who has won four of his last seven bouts by 12-round split decisions. “He’s not a warrior. He’s not coming to win the fight. He’s kind of a defensive fighter. He’s looking to win every round. He just wants to win the fight.

“I don’t think he’s a very exciting fighter because he just goes round-by-round. I’m just going to be too strong for him. He’s bigger than me, maybe body-wise. He’s taller. But we will see. I’m very prepared for this fight and he’s not going to be [better] than me. I’m going to be too strong for him.”

The Darchinyan-Moreno match will be the co-featured fight of a “Showtime Championship Boxing” card Dec. 3 from Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. A rematch between Mares (22-0-1, 13 KO), of Montebello, Calif., and Ghana’s Agbeko (28-3, 22 KO) will be the main event that night.

The 35-year-old Darchinyan (37-3-1, 27 KO) really wants another shot at Mares, but he wouldn’t predict a winner of Mares-Agbeko II. The Australia-based former 112-pound and 115-pound world champion can see the first televised fight of the night going only one way, but he knows he must be more tactical against the 26-year-old Moreno (31-1-1, 11 KO), who’ll try to out-box the rugged Darchinyan.

“I have to be patient,” Darchinyan said. “I’m not going to rush. We saw that already [in my fight] with Agbeko. I just wanted to knock him out in the first round. I was very, very impatient. I was not controlling myself, because I wanted to knock him out. It’s not going to happen anymore.”