BOOK REVIEW: Legendary British fight figure Mickey Duff called him: “The most outstanding boxer from this county never to have fought for the world title.” Former flyweight champion Charlie Magri said of him: “He was fantastic. He should have earned a fortune.” Terry Lawless, London manager of world champions John H. Stracey, Maurice Hope and Magri, reflected: “He’s probably the most gifted boxer I have ever managed, different to everyone else. I’ve never seen people do things like him.”
Born in England in 1942. Life as a boxing writer began with a weekly column in a newspaper called the South London Advertiser in the early 1960s. Moved to the far bigger-circulation South London Press, writing a twice-weekly boxing section, in 1966. Joined the weekly Boxing News in 1970 and became editor in 1972. Moved across the pond in 1977 for marriage-related reasons and covered the American scene for Boxing News until joining Boxing Monthly in 1990.
...
AGBEKO couldn't miss with the right hand. / Photo: David Martin Warr, DKP
Everyone who knew anything about boxing knew that Joseph Agbeko was going to give Vic Darchinyan all he could handle, but I don’t think many people could have expected such a dominant display from the Ghanaian in Showtime’s eagerly awaited bantamweight title bout on Saturday.
Although two judges had this just a one-point win for Agbeko, it seemed to me that this excellent fighter had outboxed, outpunched, outfought and outgamed the Australian from Armenia. The third judge seemed to be closer to what really happened with his score of 116-111. The margins would have been wider had not referee Tommy Kimmons ruled a knockdown when Agbeko was dragged off his feet in the seventh, but even this 10-8 round was not nearly enough to get Darchinyan out of trouble in the scoring.
Some rounds were closely fought, but the overall impression I had was of Agbeko making Darchinyan miss and hitting him with right hands, sometimes shooting straight rights through the middle, at other times looping them over the top. His jab worked well, too, and a couple of times he seemed to move Darchinyan sideways with the left hook. Honestly, it wasn’t even close. Darchinyan knew he had lost and so did his corner.
I don’t think this was a case of a bully being bullied, rather an example of a strong, heavy hitting fighter simply not being able to handle the situation when nothing he did could make an impression on the other man.
What surprised me was Agbeko’s upper-body movement: relaxed, side to side, always in motion, and something that was picked up on by Al Bernstein in the commentary. Darchinyan just couldn’t time Agbeko, and I think that he became frustrated and a bit angry and simply tried to blast his man out of the fight, a tactical error that he admitted afterwards.
Darchinyan fought, technically, the worst I have ever seen him box, but credit must go to Agbeko for this. Things that worked for Darchinyan against other fighters — the awkward, body-twisting advance, the sudden rushes — weren’t working against this intelligent, quick and tough fighter from Ghana. This must have been what it was like years ago at the Inglewood Forum in Los Angeles when Ghana’s David “Poison” Kotey outboxed and outsmarted the big hitting Ruben Olivares. Agbeko seemed to know what Darchinyan was going to do even before he did it.
The explosive exchanges that many had predicted never happened — Agbeko was far too savvy for that — although commentator Bernstein offered viewers an opening-round guarantee that “this fight’s not going 12 rounds”.
It was a hard fight physically for Agbeko, but I think that he knew very early that he had Darchinyan where he wanted him. A rematch would be intriguing, partly because two judges had the fight unbelievably close, giving a misleading impression of what happened, and partly because people would want to see if Darchinyan could solve the puzzle next time. My suspicion is that Agbeko simply might have Darchinyan’s number.
