Arce exposed Darchinyan's defensive liabilities.

Arce has to be respected after his fight last night. The guy has a granite chin because he managed to do everything wrong, yet still give Darchinyan a rougher night than the judges' scores depicted.

And while I more or less agree with the scores presented, I saw some liabilities in Darchinyan's defense that may cost him against a sharp punching opponent in the future.

Arce neglected his jab, circled to his right, lunged in with looping punches, and had little regard for an elusive offense, yet still managed to land some hard left hooks that clearly affected Darchinyan.

While Arce was not able to seriously hurt Darchinyan due to what seemed to be due to a bad fight plan in combination with what was mentioned above, he did show some *****s in Darchinyan's armor when he was on the inside.

Granted, most opponents are reluctant to try to fight Darchinyan inside because they risk being blasted on the way in, especially considering Darchinyan's crouching stance, daring an opponent to step in so they can be smashed with a left hand, but if an opponent is brave or smart enough to take or avoid his punch, they can beat Darchinyan unless Vic improves his defense.

For instance, Darchinyan is in the habit of holding his right hand low, which is effective at Darchinyan's range or from the outside, but it gives his opponent a huge target when they get inside of Darchinyan's range.

If you have a guy who can use his jab or even a right hand to step inside, and if they throw short and compact punches, they will be able to land their left hook almost at will until Darchinyan catches on, and practices putting his hands up when his opponents are inside or ties them up, (which he was doing somewhat effectively last night).

I'm not discrediting Darchinyan. He's still a monster, but he does have a glaring defensive weakness that a smart opponent will be able to take advantage of.

While Donaire had a more patient gameplan, waiting for Darchinyan to come to him, but WITHOUT leaning in, and waiting for Vic to make mistakes, he was still able to land that left hook cleanly and knock Vic out.

Why was Vic knocked out? Because he has a habit of dropping his right hand, especially after he punches.

 

I like Vic, but a sharp puncher is going to knock him out if he doesn't improve his defense.

You can hold your hand low before you throw a punch, but you need to bring it back to your face after you throw it.

That's boxing 101. Some people like Ali can get away with it, but that's because he was an amazing athlete.

Don't get me wrong, Vic is athletic in his own right, but he's no Ali.

And you can't really fault me too much because it has happened in the past with Donaire and it appears that Vic hasn't learned anything from that KO.

 

You're right, he was brawling too much, but if he was going to brawl that's even more reason to keep his hands up considering that most of the exchanges took place on the inside.

Now when Vic had Arce on the end of his punches, he was whuppin Arce's ass, and that's where he needed to keep him.

But ****.......Arce is one tough SOB. I don't think there are too many guys out there that are willing to take that kind of possible punishment in order to get inside on Vic.

So for the time being if his managers are smart, Vic will be on top for a while.

 

Well, you're right to a certain extent, but most opponents are reluctant to try and fight Darchinyan on the inside because of his reputation as a HUGE PUNCHER.

Arce showed that he can be beat if one is brave enough to fight him on the inside.

Before, I believed that the most effective and possibly only way to beat him was by being patient and waiting for him to make mistakes.

Arce proved that if you bring the fight right to him and get inside of his range that he is open for a left hook.

Hopefully his management and trainers work on keeping his right hand up in the future.

 

I never perceived Vic as a guy who threw wide looping punches.

In fact his gameplan relvolves around a straight left hand which is usually set up with his jab.

So I don't follow your drift unless you're refering to when Vic is out of his comfort zone and his opponent is on the inside.

And you're not necessarily right about how you beat a guy who throws looping punches by being on the inside.

If you got the reach to be on the outside you can beat him with straight punches by staying on your toes and using the ring.