By Rey Danseco
 
Diosdado Gabi believes he is a strong defensive fighter, but a mental lapse let defending IBF flyweight champion Vic Darchinyan land a devastating one-left hand punch jackpot, ending the Friday night of the poor Filipino challenger with a technical knockout loss in round 8 in Sta. Ynez, California.

Gabi (26-3-1, 19 KOs) prevented Darchinyan’s one-two combination, but not the deadly left-hand-punch straight to his jaw from the unbeaten lefty Armenian-Australian champ.

The 25-year old native of Lasang, Davao City immediately dropped to the canvas, got up with glassy-eyes on the count of nine. But American referee David Mendoza stopped the exciting bout at 2:42 mark of the fatal stanza, giving Darchinyan his 7th straight stoppage win.

Gabi made a good start when he outworked Darchinyan with crisp jabs and body punches in winning the first three rounds.

However, Darchinyan managed to use his reach and 3 ½ inches height advantage and punching power of hard straight left punches from round 4 to slowly wear down the Filipino top ranked contender, who is rated No. 3.

In round 6 and 7, the former Sydney Olympian used dirty tactics when he pushed Gabi down several times.

California-based Pinoy reporter Jason Aniel informed this writer after the fight that as Darchinyan was one more push away from deducting a point in round 8, the undefeated champion pressed the action and landed a left punch straight to the face of his fellow lefty Gabi.

Darchinyan improved to 25-0 with 20 KO’s in his third title retention.

With Gabi’s defeat, the Philippines has remained with one legitimate world champ, WBC light flyweight king Brian “Pinoy Punch” Viloria.

Only two Filipinos managed to capture the IBF flyweight belt. They were Dodie Boy Penalosa and Rolando Bohol in 1980s.