By Jake Donovan
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before:
A former world champion has long ago watched his prime years fade away as he continues to toil in the twilight of his career. His name value allows him to jump the line for available title shots, even if he’s losing more often than he wins meaningful fights these days.
With that in mind, he enters what is believed to be his last shot at glory, and promises to deliver the performance of his career. He has a lot left to still offer the sport, or so it’s insisted, but that a loss here will force him to seriously consider whether or not to continue fighting.
It is with that mindset that we’re supposed to believe it’s win-or-go-home for former lineal junior flyweight champion Jorge Arce.
But it’s a little hard to digest when it was the same speech heading into his previous bouts.
For the third time in his past four fights, the free-swinging Mexican will attempt to leave the ring with alphabet hardware around his waist. The latest attempt will come Saturday night in Mexico City, as he takes on Indonesian super flyweight contender Angky Angkota in a bout to air live on Fox Sports en Espanol (Saturday, 10PM ET/7PM PT).
In comparing ring records to his previous conquerors, it would appear on paper that tonight marks Arce’s best “last” chance at restoring last glory.
The former Mexican reality TV star enters this fight a loser in two of his last three contests. Among the losses is a one-sided 11th round stoppage loss to Vic Darchinyan, who despite having since lost himself (at bantamweight) still reigns as the lineal champion in the very same super flyweight division in which Arce hopes to still seriously contend.
There was hardly any shame in losing to Darchinyan at the time of the fight; the Armenian was coming off of a career-best year and regarded by many to be among the world’s fighters in a pound-for-pound sense. Simply put, nobody expected Arce to win, and he pretty much performed up (or down) to expectations.
More hope was held out in his last contest, a vacant title bid against undefeated South African contender Simphiwe Nongqayi last September. The fight was more than just a title shot; Nongqayi entered the fight as the top alphabet contender on the strength of handily defeating Jorge’s younger brother Francisco Arce, and in their hometown of Los Mochis, Mexico.
Such a backdrop, combined with his entering the fight on the heels of a confidence boosting knockout win and the fight taking place on a show celebrating Mexican Independence Day, was supposed to provide Arce with the necessary motivation to turn back the clock and prove to the sport that he shouldn’t be written off as a has-been.
If the will and desire was there, the skill set left in his reservoir were sorely lacking. As was the case seven months prior, Nongqayi traveled to Mexico and had his way with an Arce, making the former three-division titlist look every bit the part of a badly faded 30-year old, 13-year veteran en route to a wide decision win.
No sooner than the decision was announced did the whispers begin of the fight being his last moment in the sun.
Of course, he’s been written off before. Few knew what would come of his career after watching a faded Michael Carbajal rally from way behind to score late knockout in what would be the final fight of his Hall of Fame career in 1999.
Arce dusted off the disappointment and came back with a vengeance, going on an eight-year, 26-fight win streak that would see titles collected in two weight classes and a significant cult-level following thanks to showcase bouts on HBO’s Boxing After Dark as well as numerous pay-per-view appearances.
The good fortunes came to a crashing halt in 2007, when then-unheralded Cristian Mijares boxed Arce silly in what became a miserably failed bid to capture a belt in a third weight class. Words like “exposed”, “washed up” and “overrated” were tossed around after the fight, with Arce himself further fueling the flames after his follow-up bout, a sixth-round knockout of Tomas Rojas following an uneven performance through the first five.
Still, there was more fight left in the old dog, scoring five straight wins in all before running into Darchinyan nearly a year ago. The fight was viewed as a necessity due to the diminutive sluggers becoming heated rivals over the years. There was a score to be settled, which it was, but most certainly not in Arce’s favor.
Naturally, it was believed to be his last shot at any kind of in-ring glory, but his handlers managed to maneuver him into a vacant title slot just two fights later, even if not necessarily earning the title shot.
Nongqayi proved to the karma that was destined to catch up to Arce, and once again came the insistence that there was nothing left for him to pursue.
This being boxing, where alphabet titles a dime a dozen these days (and sometimes that many in just one weight class), yet another one became vacant, which leads us to Saturday night.
On paper, there’s little to suggest that Angkota will stand in the way of Arce defying Father Time for at least one more night. The Indonesian only boasts two wins of any sort of significance, with decision wins over Sonny Boy Jaro and then-unbeaten Donnie Nietes coming earlier in his career.
To put it mildly, he deserves a title shot about as much as Arce does.
But believing he’s entering a winnable fight is only half the battle, and rarely the mindset any fighter carries, much less one who needs to treat every moment as if nothing awaits him beyond this fight if his arm isn’t raised in victory.
Such is the mindset Arce carries into tonight’s fight, a night he believes will provide the stage for his last stand.
Even if the rest of know that win, lose or draw, recent history suggests that we haven’t seen the last of him.
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com and an award-winning member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Contact Jake at JakeNDaBox@gmail.com.
