By Ronnie Nathanielsz

IBF/IBO flyweight champion Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire says he wants the three belts that WBC/WBA/IBF super flyweight champion Vic Darchinyan retained with an 11th round TKO over Mexican warrior Jorge “ Travieso” Arce at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, Sunday morning Manila Time.

Donaire spoke to BoxingScene.com, insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports from his training camp in Baguio City where he watched the “live” coverage of the fight over the cable channel of Solar Sports along with former world champion Dodie Boy Penalosa and brother Jonathan Penalosa who are both helping Donaire prepare for his title defense against undefeated Raul “The Cobra” Martinez at the Araneta Coliseum on March 22..

Donaire commended Arce for “fighting with heart” despite the wear and tear of a tough career but said Darchinyan was “the same old Darchinyan and we saw all the flaws again in this fight. The same flaws he showed me when we fought.”

Donaire who inflicted the only defeat on Darchinyan when he won the IBF/IBO flyweight belts with a spectacular, one-punch knockout on July 7, 2007 that won him the "Knockout of the Year" accolade,   predicted that if he was the one who fought Drachinyan instead of Arce, “it would have probably gone the same way” as their first encounter.

Donaire noticed that Darchinyan “looked the same,  fought exactly the same when I fought him aside from him not being too aggressive as he usually was and it would have been pretty much the same result.”

Donaire said “most definitely I want to fight him again” but unfortunately everything was “jumbled around” as his planned WBO super flyweight title shot at Fernando Montiel was called off after Montiel moved up in weight and will now face bantamweight mandatory challenger Eric Morel in a WBO interim title fight where veteran Filipino southpaw Gerry Penalosa remains champion.. The original scenario was for the winner of Donaire vs Montiel to face the winner of Darchinyan vs Arce but it may now take some time for that dream rematch to take place.

Donaire who will move up to super flyweight after the upcoming title defense said “most definitely I want to make that happen. I know his (Darchinyan's) weaknesses. He is a big force in this weight and I want those three belts.”

Ringside physician Dr. Paul Wallace advised referee Lou Moret, himself a doctor to stop the fight before the start of the final round after Arce was cut and bloodied under and over his right eyebrow and even at the back of his head as he took a bad beating from Darchinyan. All three judges had the champion leading at the time of the stoppage with identical lopsided scorecards of 109-100.  .

Darchinyan started off well catching Arce with stinging lefts and as the Mexican lunged forward Darchinyan nailed him with a couple of good shots to the head. Arce turned things around in the third where he appeared to have hurt Darchinyan with a solid right but the champion came right back and wobbled Arce in the fourth with a left uppercut.

The champion hurt Arce again in the 7th with a vicious uppercut and then pressured the tiring Mexican who appeared to age as the fight wore on. Three good rights by Arce failed to move Darchinyan who didn’t even blink in round nine when it turned a little ugly forcing referee Morett to ask Arce to stop wrestling and Darchinyan not to hold and hit.

Darchinyan opened up a cut over the right eye of Arce in round eleven as the WBA Interim champion seemed to tire chasing the unified champion in a sign of desperation. With his corner telling him to box, Darchinyan bloodied Arce’s right eye which he targeted because of the cut and although Arce claimed it was a head-butt the referee insisted the cut was aggravated by a punch.

A slo-mo replay suggested that the gash suffered by Arce in round eleven was caused by the ropes as he tried to bring his head back into the ring after it popped out during one of the torrid exchanges.

In a post fight interview Darchinyan said that if the fight went to round 12 he would have “thrown more punches because I wanted to knock him out” even as he said the TKO decision was “okay, I’m happy.”