Darchinyan and Arce Speak Out!

http://www.fightnews.com/showtime360.gif from FightNews.com :boxing: A must-see matchup that fans, media and the fighters themselves have been clamoring for will take place when two of boxing’s biggest little men and hardest punchers, Vic Darchinyan and Jorge Arce, clash at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., on Saturday, Feb. 7, live on (SHOWTIME, 9 p.m. ET/PT, delayed on the west coast). Darchinyan’s 115-pound IBF, WBC and WBA world titles will be on the line. Darchinyan (31-1-1, 25 KOs), of Sydney, Australia, by way of Armenia, will be making his first defense since unifying the 115-pound division with a devastating ninth-round knockout over Mexico’s Cristian Mijares Nov. 1, 2008, on SHOWTIME. Darchinyan, who entered the ring as the IBF champion, walked out with Mijares’ WBC and WBA belts. The popular, crowd-pleasing Arce (51-4-1, 39 KOs), of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico, is the current WBA interim super flyweight champion and is a former WBC 115-pound and World Boxing Organization (WBO) 108-pound titleholder. In the SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING co-feature, No. 5 ranked WBC lightweight contender Antonio DeMarco (19-1-1, 13 KOs) of Tijuana, Mexico, will take on “Kid Diamond” Almazbek Raiymkulov (27-1-1, 15 KOs) in a 12-round lightweight bout for the North American Boxing Organization (NABO) title. The main event fighters and their promoters spoke on a national media conference call Wednesday. The following are highlights from the call: READ WHAT DARCHINYAN & ARCE HAD TO SAY