"All the writers -- did I keep my promise?" -- Vic Darchinyan after the fight, referencing his promise to knock Mijares out

Listen, Vic, you don't have to tell me:

As for a pick, I know I shouldn't go against Mijares because he's a better fighter, but I like Vic to catch him and hurt him in this one. Give me the Darchinyan upset by knockout, late rounds. I realize this is a stupid pick.

Lemme tell ya somethin', Mean Gene! This may have been the single best performance of Vic Darchinyan's career. Beating a top 10ish pound-for-pound fighter, and beating him convincingly, is absolutely his biggest win. This was the best fighter he'd ever fought, and Darchinyan laid waste to Cristian Mijares.

Darchinyan (31-1-1, 25 KO) is now the WBC/WBA/IBF junior bantamweight titlist after a stunningly dominant win over the favored Mijares. Showtime's Steve Albert noted that 26 of 32 boxing writers at their press thingamajig picked Mijares; almost everyone I read was picking Mijares past Darchinyan's crazy fans.

But even though I picked Darchinyan, I saw it more that he'd eventually find Mijares and hurt him. I expected Vic to struggled with Mijares speed and defensive acumen. He didn't.

In fact, it was "Defense" Darchinyan that was the start of the fight. Yeah, he landed the bombs. He knocked Mijares down with an uppercut in the opening round, and knocked him out with a final barrage in the ninth round, but the fact is he totally neutered Mijares in the ring. Mijares may have just had a bad night at the office. He may have underestimated Darchinyan and taken him lightly.

Whatever it was, he got his ass kicked.

The only title fight left to be made in order to crown a true champion at 115 pounds is now Vic Darchinyan versus Fernando Montiel, and given that Darchinyan took Mijares against everyone's advice, I have no doubt he'd fight Montiel. And we know Showtime will snatch that one up; they've firmly been in Darchinyan's corner for years now, and he's given them all the reason in the world to stay there.

Mijares (36-4-2, 14 KO) suffers his first defeat since 2002, and really, it's essentially the first real defeat of his pro career. His first three losses all came within his first fifteen pro fights, when he went 11-3-1. Outside of a 2006 draw with Luis Maldonado, he'd been perfect since. Many great fighters have lost early in the Mexican rings (Margarito, Soto, etc.)

I said the last time I updated the P4P list that I thought some people were going a little too crazy about Mijares. I don't feel like this is a fight that "vindicates" that thought or anything; this was not the best Mijares, as I said. I think the real story of this fight was, again, that Vic Darchinyan was better than we thought he could be. He was better than he'd ever been before.

On the undercard, Andre Dirrell overwhelmed Victor Oganov as expected. Oganov landed perhaps one good punch before referee Ray Corona stopped the fight in the sixth round, seemingly a bit out of nowhere. There were plenty of moments, with Dirrell throwing all but the kitchen sink and Oganov doing nothing, that Corona could have stopped the fight. The moment he chose was a bit peculiar, and while I think it was questionable in practice, it was the right call in spirit. Oganov had no chance to win that fight.

Results from Germany:

Felix Sturm widely outpointed Sebastien Sylvester in the main event in Oberhausen, retaining the WBA middleweight title on scores of 119-109, 118-110, 118-110. Sturm is now 31-2-1 (13), while Sylvester falls out of serious contention at 29-3 (14).

On the undercard, Sergei Dzinziruk outpointed 154-pound challenger Joel Julio. I haven't seen the scores, but one report I read said that Julio had Dzinziruk on the ropes early and slowed down late to lose the fight. Dzinziruk stays unbeaten (36-0, 22), while Julio loses his second career fight (34-2, 31).

Results from Vegas:

Top Rank's pay-per-view is over, and here are the notable results.

Jorge Arce (51-4-1, 39 KO) stopped Isidro Garcia in the fourth round.

Vanes Martirosyan (22-0, 14 KO) knocked out Charles Howe in the opening round.

Lamont Peterson (26-0, 12 KO) won an easy decision against Lanardo Tyner (19-2, 11 KO). Scores were 99-87, 98-91, 99-90.

Nonito Donaire (20-1, 13 KO) stopped Moruti Mthalane (22-2, 15 KO) in the sixth round to retain the IBF/IBO flyweight titles. The fight was ended on a cut.

In the main event, Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., beat Matt Vanda again, this time by unanimous decision (99-91, 98-92, 97-93). Chavez is now 38-0-1 (29). Vanda will resume his journeyman career at 39-8 (22).

We'll be live at 9pm ET! Join us for tonight's fights, live on Showtime!

via sports.sho.com

I tried to work an honest to God preview for tonight's junior bantamweight unification fight between WBC/WBA titlist Cristian Mijares and IBF titlist Vic Darchinyan, but I failed to come up with anything very provocative or interesting to say.

The simple fact of the matter is this: these are fighters that don't get enough due among American fans. This is a country that still ignores guys this small, no matter how good they are or how good their fights are. Mijares is having as good a year as anybody in the sport, and Darchinyan always comes to fight. If the size of the dog in the fight still matters to you as a boxing fan, then I guess I could see why you might think boxing is in the dumps.

It's a classic boxer versus brawler matchup. No matter how much Darchinyan says he's not going to fight stupid, he will. He's a fight stupid kind of guy, and that's no knock. That's just who he is. He's one of the angriest fighters I've ever seen; he seems to hiss with every movement. Mijares is a classy boxer, a guy that works on speed, defense, and what he calls "a gift" of seeing punches coming. He brutally battered Jorge Arce last year in what was his coming out party, and he's done nothing but win since, including a victory over Alexander Munoz earlier this year.

Should he beat Darchinyan, as most feel he will, he's a very serious candidate for Fighter of the Year.

Darchinyan is looking for some amount of redemption still after his shocking 2007 knockout loss to Nonito Donaire. I think there's really nothing Vic wants more than to get another crack at Donaire, particularly since the rumblings are that Nonito is due to head up to 115 pounds. If he beats Mijares, he's got three title belts to offer.

I've never liked Darchinyan, but I do admire him. That blob in the photo above had no desire to match Darchinyan with Mijares, knowing it's a terrible style matchup, and saying as much. But Darchinyan wanted this fight. There's a lot to be said for a fighter with that kind of heart.

It's going to be a good fight. A few final notes:

1. Kevin Iole's preview is a good one, and it paints Mijares as one of the most humble guys ever:

"I know there are a lot of Mexican fans who don’t like my style, who just love blood and knockdowns and brawls and that kind of a fight," said Mijares. "There are some who love speed and my style of fight, too, though. I’m not perfect and I know that. I’m not afraid to be hit. But I don’t like to get hit. Honestly, who does? No one really does. They may tell you that, but they’re just talking. No one wants to be hit, if they could help it. I have a gift to see the punches coming and have a way to avoid them and that’s what I do."

"I’m not saying I’m Finito Lopez, because I know I am not. But I want to fight every big fight I can fight so the people can appreciate the fighters in these weight classes and know what I am able to do in there. Vic is a terrific fighter and is no walkover. Beating him in a fight on Showtime in Los Angeles, that’s going to be a big win for me."

2. Our pal Tim Starks at The Queensbury Rules has a damn good preview, too, and he's going with Mijares.

3. A nice Darchinyan article at The Age, including this quote from Shaw: "If I told Vic he had to fight Mike Tyson, Vic would show up for the fight."

4. LA Times quote from Darchinyan: "You know, it's boxing. There's two guys in the ring, and if you don't punch him, he'll punch you, and the same thing that happened [to Burgos] can happen to you. At the end of the day, I'm concerned with my opponent, and I want him to be able to go home to his family, not to the hospital. But in the ring, I want to destroy him."

These guys are pretty much total opposites. We'll be here live at 9pm ET for round-by-round coverage and scoring. We hope you'll join us for the fights (Andre Dirrell-Victor Oganov will open the night).

As for a pick, I know I shouldn't go against Mijares because he's a better fighter, but I like Vic to catch him and hurt him in this one. Give me the Darchinyan upset by knockout, late rounds. I realize this is a stupid pick.

ESPN.com is reporting that a 115-pound title unification bout between Cristian Mijares (WBC/WBA) and Vic Darchinyan (IBF) will take place on November 1 on Showtime, the result of a lot of forces coming together to fill an open date on the schedule.

Kudos to Showtime, both fighters, and promoters Lou DiBella and Gary Shaw for getting this deal done. There had been rumblings of the fight being held off until 2009, but instead of taking stay-busy fights, the two titleholders will just go right at each other.

Shaw said even though Darchinyan (30-1-1, 24 KOs), an Armenian based in Australia, would be the underdog, he really wanted the fight.

"I believe Mijares has the upper hand. He's very tough and a very accurate puncher, but I have a very determined guy. This is not a fight that would be my first choice but I have at least 30 e-mails from Darchinyan telling me to get him Mijares. It's really refreshing that a fighter would want a tough fight of this magnitude. There are others who would say, 'Get me some money and an easier fight.' But Vic has a lot of confidence. He says, 'When I knock out Mijares, line up [Nonito] Donaire next, I owe him one.'"

One thing I will give Darchinyan credit for is guts, because there are few that are going to think he can beat the slick, classy Mijares, who is on a hell of a tear right now. It's also probably a pipe dream, getting a rematch with Donaire, who won't soon be in a rush to put money in the pocket of Gary Shaw, the promoter he left on less than amicable terms.

But it's a fight that promises action, even if Mijares dominates the brawling, unorthodox Darchinyan with his speed and technical ability, as I expect he will. It would be the first time in the history of the 115-pound division that any man has held three major titles at once, no matter who wins, and will be only the third unification bout in the division's history, too. The first came in 1997, when Johnny Tapia fought Danny Romero, and the second came earlier this year, when Mijares beat Alexander Munoz.

After these guys do business, maybe a full unification with WBO titleholder Fernando Montiel will be in the offing. Montiel is slated to face Z Gorres on December 13 in Macau.

The Mijares-Darchinyan undercard will feature a TV fight between Andre Dirrell (16-0, 11 KO) and Victor Oganov (28-1, 28 KO), whose perfect 26-fight, 26-knockout streak was ended last September by Fulgencio Zuniga, who battered him en route to a ninth round TKO. Dirrell will be a favorite, but don't discount the powerful Oganov, even though he's never beaten anyone of any merit.