by David P. Greisman
 
Talk is cheap – except for when someone makes you put your money where your mouth is.
 
Vic Darchinyan was never at a loss for words. And he had only lost once – aside from one draw, 32 times he’d backed those words up with his fists.
 
Joseph Agbeko wasn’t impressed. He looked at the “Raging Bull” and saw a bully.
 
“Vic is always talking about his power and about how he’s this and that,” Agbeko said on a conference call two weeks before he and Darchinyan were to face off. “But I’ve watched a couple of his fights and I never saw that power. He’s always fought guys that are afraid of him and he did what he wanted with them. But in this fight I’m going to do what I want and beat him the way I want.”
 
Darchinyan made bold predictions and vowed to make them reality.
 
“Nothing compares to my power,” Darchinyan said on that conference call two weeks before the fight. “I will knock him out with my power. I can open my jaw and let him punch it and he still won’t hurt me.”
 
“I’m going to play with him and destroy him,” he said the week of the fight. “I’ll start throwing bombs in the middle rounds. I’ll knock him out before the end of the 12th.”
 
“I keep my promises,” he said days before the fight. “I’m going to slow him down, punish him and knock him out.”
 
When running the bulls in Pamplona, speed and smart movement are crucial. Run too slowly – or make one wrong move – and you’re likely to get gored. The quick, the wise and the lucky escape unharmed. But the bulls never lose.
 
Agbeko’s run in with Darchinyan was in Sunrise, Fla. He humbled the “Raging Bull” with speed and smart movement. Though Agbeko downplayed Darchinyan’s power, Darchinyan had scored 26 knockouts in his 32 victories, capturing a world title in the flyweight division and then rolling through the 115-pound weight class to become its undisputed champion. But Darchinyan couldn’t knock out what he couldn’t hit and couldn’t hurt. This bully lost.
 
Between the 11th and 12th rounds, Darchinyan sat in his blue corner, silenced, his head back, his eyes barely open, one gash on his right eyebrow, another gash below his left, looking like a bull whose horns had been removed. The cuts came from head butts. The bull himself had been gored.
 
Agbeko rose from his red corner before the bell rang to start the final stanza. He raised his gloves high above his head and then went back to doing what had won him a majority of the previous rounds.
 
He ducked his head forward, tempting Darchinyan to hit him, but bobbed his head and shoulders from side to side, back and forth, providing a moving target. He sent lead right hands at his southpaw opponent, who would lean and charge into the shots. And he took the best Darchinyan had to offer – which wasn’t much on this night.
 
Darchinyan was once a one-dimensional power-puncher, relying solely on his left hand to act as a battering ram. The knockout was everything. He stopped unbeaten Irene Pacheco to capture the flyweight title, then finished four straight opponents before the final bell. The knockout meant so much that when Glenn Donaire begged out in the middle of Darchinyan’s fifth title defense – claiming a broken jaw as a result of a head butt and convincing the referee to send that bout to the scorecards – Darchinyan took offense at winning by technical decision instead of by technical knockout.
 
Darchinyan followed that bout by scoring one more knockout. Then he wound up on the receiving end, being sent to the canvas for the loss by a single counter left hook from Nonito Donaire, Glenn Donaire’s younger brother.
 
Nonito Donaire had caught Darchinyan charging in.
 
Darchinyan would need to stop charging and make a change.
 
He still knew where his strength was – in his left hand – but he fought from a closer distance, using body positioning and timing to land punches rather than relying on sheer aggression.
 
He kept all that in mind, moved up to 115 pounds and became champion. He forgot all that had worked for him before Saturday night.
 
“I took a different tactic,” Darchinyan said after the fight. “I went for the big punch, and I paid for it. I lost. I was getting upset and repeating some mistakes. It’s not an excuse. I took a bad tactic, and I wasn’t smart tonight.”
 
Darchinyan had made bold predictions and vowed to make them reality. But he reverted to a form that was left-hand heavy and sent out little but heavy left hands. His jab pawed air and allowed Agbeko to worry solely about one punch that could be dodged and timed.
 
Darchinyan was able to hit Agbeko at times. Agbeko took those shots, showing himself little worse for wear. Agbeko, a bantamweight, had spoken of being Darchinyan’s biggest opponent yet. Darchinyan weighed in just below the 118-pound weight limit, at 117.5 pounds, and actually was bigger than Agbeko, who tipped the scales at 116.5 pounds. And on fight night, Darchinyan had dehydrated to about 127 pounds while Agbeko was lighter at 121 pounds.
 
Agbeko was faster. That he was able to know what punches were coming meant they did less damage. And his chin never cracked.
 
Darchinyan didn’t play with Agbeko and destroy him. He didn’t wear him down with bombs in the middle round and then knock him out before the end of the 12th. The bout went to the scorecards. Agbeko took the decision, 116-111 by one judge’s tally, 114-113 according to the two other official observers. Those latter scores made the action seem far closer than it was.
 
Darchinyan had spoken not only of what he would do to Agbeko, but what he would do afterward. He could face Nonito Donaire and exact revenge. He could move up to junior featherweight and challenge for a world title in yet another weight class, and then move on to yet another division and another challenge.
 
“I have to move up in weight and go after more titles,” he had said. “I have the power to demolish anyone.”
 
Talk is cheap. Darchinyan talked a lot, but his mouth wrote a check that his rear end couldn’t cash. 

The 10 Count

1.  R.I.P. Arturo Gatti, 1972-2009.

2.  Police in Brazil have arrested Gatti’s wife, 23-year-old Amanda Rodrigues, and charged her with murdering him, according to various reports (in this entry, my information comes from a New York Daily News article).
 
Rodrigues is accused of using her purse strap to strangle Gatti while he slept. Police said Rodrigues was “inconsistent and incoherent” in an interview and that she could not explain how she spent 10 hours in their hotel room without noticing her husband was dead.
 
The purse was stained with blood. Gatti also had a head injury but no gunshot or stab wounds.
 
Gatti and Rodrigues apparently got into an argument in a bar Friday. Rodrigues told police Gatti was drunk, struck her and knocked her to the floor, and she showed police injuries on her elbow and chin. Witnesses said the couple was still fighting after they left the bar.
 
The couple were vacationing in Brazil, attending the graduation of a relative, presumably a relative of Rodrigues. Former world titlist Acelino Freitas, a Brazilian who is friends with Gatti, told a news network that Gatti and his wife “were having some sort of problem and were about to separate,” he was quoted as saying in the article.

3.  My personal tribute to Gatti can be found by clicking here.

4.  Boxers Behaving Badly, part one: Johnny Tapia is back in police custody for allegedly violating probation, though this time drugs are not involved, according to New Mexico television station KOB.
 
Tapia apparently traveled to the small town of Red River, N.M., without getting permission from his probation officer. His attorney says Tapia went there to help search for a missing family member.
 
Tapia got out from his last stint behind bars about two months ago, 40 days of incarceration following a recent cocaine relapse and subsequent arrest for violating probation.
 
Tapia, 42, has a history of cocaine use, the details of which have been chronicled in this space too often.
 
His parole board hearing is scheduled for July 30. 

5.  Boxers Behaving Badly, part two: Kevin Mitchell, an undefeated 130-pounder from the United Kingdom, pleaded guilty earlier this month to a charge of drunk driving, according to the Romford Recorder.
 
Mitchell, 24, was pulled over in Dagenham, which is a suburb of London. A breath test showed him to have 60 micrograms of alcohol in 100 milliliters of breath, which is above the legal limit of 35 micrograms. This scribe is not skilled enough with the metric system to convert those figures to blood alcohol content.
 
Mitchell’s driver’s license has been suspended for 17 months, though that could be shortened by four months if he completes a course for drunk drivers. Mitchell also must pay a total of 481 pounds, or about $780, in fines.
 
Mitchell is 28-0 with 21 knockout victories.

6.  Boxers Behaving Badly, part three: Andrey Nevsky, a Russian prospect who had been fighting out of New England, was one of 13 people arrested last week and charged with being part of a drug distribution ring, according to the Worcester (Mass.) Telegram & Gazette.
 
Nevsky, 24, was charged with “conspiracy with intent to distribute more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana, conspiracy to import more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana, and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments,” the report said.
 
That’s more than a ton of weed. The ring allegedly involved smuggling marijuana and money from Canada to the United States, where both would be funneled to drug dealers.
 
Nevsky is 7-0 with four knockouts. His last appearance was last month, a fifth-round kayo victory over Roberto Burgess.

7.  Boxers Behaving Badly, part four: Tony Aitcheson, a lightweight amateur national champion from Dewsbury Moor, England, was sentenced last week to nearly three years in prison, according to the Batley News.
 
Aitcheson, 20, pleaded guilty to a charge of grievous bodily harm stemming from a March attack of a man he felt had insulted his girlfriend. Aitcheson punched the man, knocking him to the ground and then stomped on his face.
 
He will serve 32 months at a correctional facility for young defenders.

8.  The metaphorical wisdom of Teddy Atlas, part one, as brought to you by Round 3 of Matt Godfrey-Shawn Hawk:
 
It started out innocently enough on last week’s episode of ESPN2’s “Friday Night Fights,” with Teddy pointing out what Hawk was doing wrong in his bout with fellow cruiserweight Godfrey.
 
“If you’re going to press, you’ve got to press behind your jab to keep your opponent a little bit busy so he doesn’t potshot you, so he doesn’t have a clear windshield to see you coming,” Atlas said.
 
And then he kept going, moving into the winter of my discontent.
 
“You know, you gotta make it like a blizzard,” Atlas said. “You know when you’re in a blizzard, and that snow’s coming, you gotta put the windshield wipers on, and then you gotta get up closer to the window because you gotta slow down. You gotta see things coming. Well that’s the way you want to be and you want to make it for the boxer. When you’re an aggressive guy, make it a blizzard. Have the jab coming at his windshield. Hawk’s not doing that.”
 
The round ended. The metaphorical wisdom didn’t…

9.  The metaphorical wisdom of Teddy Atlas, part two, as brought to you by Round 4 of Godfrey-Hawk:
 
Joe Tessitore made a comment at the start of the fourth round, and Teddy expanded on his previous train of thought.
 
Atlas: “And right now, as I made the analogy last time, you know, Godfrey’s driving the car. And again, going back to that analogy, there’s a clear windshield, clear day. No rain, no snow coming at him. And he’s looking at that windshield and having a good time.”
 
Tessitore: “Oh yeah. It’s a Sunday drive.”
 
Atlas: “It’s a Sunday drive. And Hawk doesn’t want it to be a Sunday drive. He wants it to be a nightmare. And he needs to start doing something to affect that. He wants to make it the kind of drive that you drive with our producer, Rob Byner [sp?]. You know, your heart is up in your throat. I mean, he wants to make it that kind of drive. You’re on the side of the road. There’s leaves coming at you, branches coming at you.”
 
Tessitore: “We’ve been there almost a decade now, late night Friday drives with our producers.”
 
Atlas: “Greatest producer in the world, but driving…”
 
Tessitore and Atlas: “Wow.”
 
Atlas: “But nothing like that going on right now on the windshield of Godfrey.”
 
Tessitore: “If Hawk was ever in a car when Rob Byner tried to make a red eye, he’d run. Hawk would run. So halfway through this fourth round, and Godfrey still doing much of the same.”
 
Atlas: “Well it’s a little bit of a tip-off that it might not be the most scintillating fight when we spend half of the round talking about our beloved producer.”

10.  Yeah, no kidding…

David P. Greisman is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. His weekly column, “Fighting Words,” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. He may be reached for questions and comments at fightingwords1@gmail.com