I disagree. As Al Bernstein pointed out, Vic regressed noticeably in terms of boxing skill from the Mijares fight to the Arce fight. However I think this was simply Vic fighting to the level of his opposition. He knew it would be a messy brawl with Arce, and in fact seemed to relish this, and did not respect Arce's power even after being stung a little a couple of times. Darchinyan was looking for the knockout and was totally confident that he would get it. He's certainly not unhittable but I don't think the Arce fight is a good measure of where he is as a defensive fighter right now. He knew what he was getting into and ate shots willingly to punish Jorge.
I agree that Arce showed where Vics defensive holes are....but the exposure came from Nonito! Vic isn't a great inside fighter...he has vastly improved with his boxing...he has a good jab...POWER to say the least and his combination punching is darn good although very unorthodox. No excuses...he completely outboxed and punished Arce.....I thought Vic would fight ARCE more on the inside which he did not....he did what he was suppose to do and BOXED. And did very well....however when he did get on the inside he was tagged and I beleive stunned for a moment. Had Arce been a bit more accurate and polished that could have spelled UPSET. And the fact I believe Arce was weary or too cautious factored in to his preformance. Jorge just looked like he was fighting scared to me....trying to land blind shots in hopes he'd get lucky. But Vic impressed me! He is a very good fighter and deserves to be the 115 champ without a doubt. I don't see many who could beat him. I lost $$$ on this fight damn it!:-(
A good counter-puncher will always give a reckless guy like Vic problems. Donaire is a great counter-puncher it was only a matter of time before he caught him. If a rematch occurs I don't expect it to go any different.
A patient, reflexsive, and fast counterpuncher, but also a compact, short punching inside puncher will give Vic problems.
Really, sometimes Darchinyan gets hit by punches? No ****, he has hands down showbaoting 90 % of the time. The only fighter that was exposed was Arce. He looked really poor skill wise, average speed, wide punches, crude skills, no defense. Arce looked like a fighter with little skill and has been getting by in his career with an iron chin and power, with little else at all.
Did you miss Mijares-Arce? That fight is basically the reason Mijares became a name. He Jeff Lacy'ed Jorge Arce, maybe even worse than Calzaghe Jeff Lacy'ed Jeff Lacy.
That's all true enough. Nonito Donaire has already showed us that Vic can be taken down with the right strategy. How many fightrs are good enough to execute that strategy though? Not many.
Vic can take a hell of a punch, he can get away with hands down most of the time. The problem for him is that Donaire has sick power and blistering speed. I dont think Vic can overcome that.