By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Promoter Gary Shaw says a WBO bantamweight title fight between reigning WBC/WBA/IBF super flyweight champion Vic Drachinyan and WBO champion Gerry Penalosa is a possibility.
In fact, Shaw told BoxingScene.com, insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports that after the impressive 11th round TKO mauling of Jorge Arce, “Darchinyan and myself were talking and we would really like to come back to the Philippines .”
Shaw said “he (Darchinyan) loves the people, I love the people” and even if he doesn’t fight Penalosa the promoter disclosed that Darchinyan "might train there ( Philippines ) for his next fight.” Right now he said the unified champion “already left to go back to Australia to relax, enjoy his family and take a vacation.”
Golden Boy Promotions vice president and international matchmaker Eric Gomez spoke to us about a possible Penalosa-Darchinyan fight and expressed confidence that “Gerry will give him (Darchinyan) a lesson.”
Gomez also said that if reigning IBF/IBO flyweight champion Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire fought Darchinyan in a rematch “he would definitely beat him.”
But if Shaw has his way, a rematch will never happen. He said Darchinyan “doesn’t need anything. If you wanted money you’ve got to fight (Manny) Pacquiao to make money. If you want to make money in the lower weights you need to fight Darchinyan.”
Shaw posed the question, “if Donaire was so important wouldn’t Bob Arum fight Arce and Donaire?”
Shaw said other prospective fights for Darchinyan included former WBO super flyweight champion Fernando Montiel who is moving up in weight to fight mandatory challenger Eric Morel in a WBO Interim title fight as well as super bantamweight Israel Vasquez among others.
Shaw said since its just two days after the Arce fight he hasn’t “sat down and given a lot of thought although I’ve given you my initial thoughts on what we’d probably like to do.”
