Vic Darchinyan has been defeated by Shinsuke Yamanaka in a WBC bantamweight title fight held in Japan. Darchinyan now drops to 37 (27) – 5 – 1, while Yamanaka improves to 16 (11)- 0 -2.
The undefeated Yamanaka made the first defense of his strap with scores of 116-112, 116-112 and 117-111 for a unanimous decision win. His youth and his size clearly played a major part in the win, as Darchinyan’s struggles the 118-lb division continue.
Darchinyan has now lost two fights in a row and three of his last five. It was also his third failed attempt at winning an elusive title in the bantamweight division.
He’s just 3-4 as a bantamweight fighter, as his age has caught up with him, and his power and strength prove to not be the advantages they were for him at his previous weights.
The loss will have many people asking what’s next for Darchinyan. He has previously expressed an interest in getting involved in mixed martial arts. Before the Yamanaka fight, he was also calling out the resurgent Jorge Arce for a rematch.
Darchinyan had previously defeated Arce in 2009, dominating him in a super flyweight title fight.
In other action on the same fight card, former longtime titleholder Hozumi Hasegawa got back in the W column after losing two of his last three fights, both by stoppage. He defeated the previously unbeaten Felipe Carlos Felix to improve to 30 (13) – 4.
WBC super featherweight titleholder Takahiro Ao successfully defended his strap for the third time, as he controlled Terdsak Kokietgym with relative ease. Final scores were 116-112, 116-112 and 118-110 for a unanimous decision win as Ao improves to 23 (10) – 2 -1.
