Darchinyan retains titles

Vic Darchinyan defended his WBA and WBC super flyweight titles with a comfortable win over Rodrigo Guerrero.

Tough challenger Guerrero lasts the distance

Vic Darchinyan successfully defended his WBA and WBC super flyweight world titles with a convincing points win over Rodrigo Guerrero. The Armenian-born Australian dominated from start to finish and was handed a unanimous decision by scores of 120-108, 118-110 and 117-111 at the end of 12 rounds. The Mexican challenger was never in contention for victory but refused to go down under a barrage from his opponent. After the fight, Darchinyan - who had 27 knockouts in 33 victories heading into the contest - praised the Guerrero's toughness. "This kid, I respect how he took punches," the 34-year-old said.

Respect

"I couldn't believe how he took punches. He kept coming back. I respect him. He's good. I thought I was going to stop him. I gave him good punches but I couldn't." Guerrero took punishment early and cuts were opened over the Mexican's eyes as the champion took the initiative. Darchinyan looked to finish his foe off in the eighth round when he unleashed a vicious flurry of punches but Guerrero stayed on his feet before counter-attacking. But Guerrero was unable to muster the strength to put Darchinyan in any real danger and the fight closed out with the Australian clearly on top. The champion stated his desire to move up in weight class at the end of the bout. He said: "I would love to move up. I'm very powerful. I could beat the champions there. I want to move up and fight better champions."