As often seems to be the case, the small men of the ring served up big-time action as Vic Darchinyan stopped a very tough and brave Jorge Arce in 11 rounds in their 115-pound title fight on Showtime.

It was unfortunate for Mexican warrior Arce that he did not at least have the satisfaction of getting through to the final bell, but he was cut badly over the right eye and I thought he was showing clear signs of weakening in the 11th as the punishment from Darchinyan began to take effect.

I think that the last round would have been brutally hard for Arce, because Darchinyan still looked strong and he was clearly gunning for a stoppage win.

True, there were just three minutes remaining, but there was no way Arce could have won, he looked weary, he was cut, and, to cap it all, I think that the commission and Dr. Paul Wallace were mindful of what happened a couple of years ago in Los Angeles when the durable and game Victor Burgos was stopped in the last round by Darchinyan. The Mexican fighter just seemed to collapse in the 12th and was rushed to hospital where he had emergency brain surgery. Thankfully, Burgos recovered, but these things are always alarming. Arce had taken a lot of hard punches in the 11 completed rounds, he did not seem to have very much left, and then there was the cut to consider.

Sometimes, it just isn’t worth the risk to let a fighter go even a further three minutes under these circumstances, because the boxer has been worn down to the point where another series of heavy hits could do serious damage.

Arce went out on his shield, as we knew he would, and all those who predicted a quick blowout for Darchinyan were underestimating Arce’s great heart and his willingness to accept any amount of punishment for the chance to land one fight-changing punch. Sometimes fighters such as Arce need to be protected from themselves.

The fight was one-sided in the sense that Darchinyan won almost every round but Arce’s gutsy defiance and occasional successes with hooks to body and head and right hands through the middle kept things interesting and often exciting.

Darchinyan was picking off Arce and nailing him with sharp punches from his southpaw stance, but Arce seemed to hurt the Aussie-Armenian several times and even had him a bit shaky in the third round. It looked as if Darchinyan had been briefly wobbled by a left hook followed by a right hand, and he suffered a vertical cut over the right eye, near the bridge of the nose, after heads collided.

It was only in the later rounds that the fight got one-sided to to the point where it got a bit painful to watch.

As mentioned in the Showtime commentary, Arce was standing up to the sort of punches, body as well as head, that would have stopped a lot of fighters. Arce just kept coming forward, though, and his right hands had the area over Darchinyan’s left eye looking bruised and swollen. “It’s boxing,” Darchinyan said matter-of-factly afterwards.

Darchinyan showed excellent boxing skills and footwork, at times having Arce blundering in the wrong direction, but it was a gruelling contest and it was just as well that the Australian fighter was in tremendous physical condition. As the fight entered the later rounds, Arce’s only hope was that somehow he could outlast Darchinyan, but instead it was the Mexican fighter whose resistance eroded, which was not surprising considering all the punches he had taken.

It was Darchinyan’s night, but I think that Arce came away with his reputation enhanced. He showed an amazing resiliency and almost managed to go the full 12 rounds, a feat that would have surprised a lot of people, including me and the 86 per cent of Showtime subscribers who, in a pre-fight poll, picked Darchinyan to win by stoppage.