Tuesday Afternoon Notes: Darchinyan ordered to defend title

Before we get going, I'd usually stay away from idiotic garbage like this, but I can't help myself this time. Chris Baldwin of Metro International wrote one of the stupidest, most pointless and most ignorant articles that I've ever bothered to take a moment to sift through on Arturo Gatti, and if you want to be annoyed by how maddening and yet utterly boring and transparent a person can be, go give it a look. Its title: "Gatti's murder shows boxing's irrelevancy"

See, to Chris Baldwin, the fact that the "tabloids and true crime princesses" let out a "yawn" over the news means that boxing has been dead forever, that nothing that isn't Tyson-related means anything to anyone. It's an antagonistic, flat-out dumb piece of alleged journalism that means nothing but gets people to pay attention to what he's saying. He's a village idiot in the middle of the park standing on a stump and cupping his hands over his mouth, trying to figure out the best thing to say to get people to walk over and tell him to shut up.

He argues that Don King paid tribute to Michael Jackson yet nobody said anything about Gatti, which would be true if Gatti hadn't been included along with Jackson and Alexis Arguello in the night's ceremonial ten-bell salute before the main event, so even trying to make a point he's just wrong. King also lined that show up in advance to serve as a Jackson tribute in Sunrise, Fla.; Gatti's death was discovered that day.

There has been an outpouring of love and respect for Arturo Gatti across the boxing world. People in general have this sense that if they aren't paying attention, it means nobody cares about something, unable to accept that there's a healthy fanbase and a in this case a real mourning over the news of Gatti's murder. The article serves zero purpose other than to get people to react. It's exactly the worst type of alleged journalism or blogging or anything else.

Anyway, congrats, Chris, you got peoples' attention. Way to be "edgy" and toe the line between good taste and good journalism. Hey, someone had to do it!

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Vic Darchinyan has been ordered by the IBF to defend his 115-pound title against mandatory challenger Simphiwe Nongqayi (15-0, 6 KO) as a result of his loss to 118-pound IBF titlist Joseph Agbeko, according to Ronnie Nathanielsz.

Nongqayi is a South African with a few OK wins on his record but nothing really substantial. He beat Julio Ler, who you probably remember from a 12-round Boxing After Dark stinkfest against Jorge Arce, and then won the title shot in an eliminator against Francisco Arce in Mexico. That February fight was his first outside of South Africa.

Darchinyan also holds the WBC and WBA titles, so it's no guarantee he'll actually go out and defend the IBF strap, even though this was one of the conditions that allowed him to fight Agbeko and keep his title for the time being. Nongqayi is nameless and means nothing to TV networks, which means Darchinyan can almost surely find a good bit more money elsewhere.

• Amir Khan was involved in a traffic accident when his Range Rover collided with a cyclist in Manchester. Police were called to the scene, and it was decided that Khan wasn't at fault for the accident. The cyclist has head injuries and was taken to the hospital. Khan fights Andriy Kotelnik this Saturday.
• Nonito Donaire weighed in on Arturo Gatti: "One of those guys I was looking at when I was little and when my dad asked me if I wanted to box I said hell no because I saw all the blood from Gatti's fights."
• Jesse Brinkley won in Reno again this weekend, beating Mike Paschall.