Two of the hardest-hitting boxers in the world participated in a media conference call Tuesday to discuss their upcoming world title fight on Saturday, July 11, live on SHOWTIME at 9 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the west coast) from the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Fla.
IBF Bantamweight champion Joseph “King Kong” Agbeko and two division world champion Vic “Raging Bull” Darchinyan both possess eye-popping knockout percentages. Agbeko (26-1, 22 KOs) of Accra, Ghana, now fighting out of Bronx, N.Y., has knocked out more than 81 percent of his opponents while Darchinyan (32-1, 26 KOs), of Sydney, Australia, by way of Armenia, is right behind him at 76 percent.
Darchinyan, an Aussie bomber who is a four-time world champion at flyweight and super flyweight, will leave his IBF, WBC and WBA titles at 115 pounds behind to move up to the 118-pound limit to face the dangerous Agbeko. If victorious, Darchinyan will become a three-division world champion.
The co-feature pits two top-10 ranked 135-pound contenders in the biggest fight of their lives when Antonio DeMarco (21-1-1, 15 KOs), of Tijuana, Mexico, takes on West African native Anges “Baby Face” Adjaho (25-1, 14 KOs) in a 10-round bout.
The event is promoted by Don King Productions in association with BankAtlantic Center. Agbeko vs. Darchinyan and DeMarco vs. Adjaho are co-promoted with Gary Shaw Productions, LLC.
The main event fighters and their promoters spoke on an international media conference call Tuesday. The following are highlights from the call:
JOSEPH AGBEKO
“In boxing you have to fight the best to be the best and I just want Vic to know that this is the fight of my life. I know Vic Darchinyan picked to fight me because he thinks he can have his way with me but I just want him to know that this is the biggest mistake he has ever made in his career because he’s going to get the worst beating of his career.
“Why didn’t he talk like this when Nonito Donaire beat him? I wanted him to talk more and I want him to realize that I’m going to beat him more than Donaire beat him.
“I know I’m better than Vic Darchinyan. I know he can punch. I’m really, really ready for his punches. I know he’s never been on the receiving end of someone who punches like me.
“Vic is always talking about his power and about how he’s this and that but I’ve watched a couple of his fights and I never saw that power. He’s always fought guys that are afraid of him and he did what he wanted with them. But in this fight I’m going to do what I want to do and beat him the way I want.
“I’m going to let him do whatever he wants to do in this fight because I can do whatever he does better than him.
VIC DARCHINYAN
“I think after this fight they are going to change my opponent’s name to Joseph ‘Chimpanzee’ Agbeko. This is going to be the biggest mismatch. Where would you like me to hurt you most? In the body or in the face?
“I can’t spend my career just defending, defending, defending. I have to move up in weight and go after more titles. I have the power to demolish anyone. I’m going to keep moving up.
“I’ve seen Agbeko’s fights and they don’t impress me. You will see, nothing compares to my power. I will knock him out with my power. I can open my jaw and let him punch it and he still won’t hurt me.
“I hope he’s working hard and training extra hard for this fight. I don’t want it to be an easy fight. I want to be your nightmare after this fight and not before because I want you to get a good night’s sleep.
"I'm going to demolish him (Donaire) in a rematch."
ELIAS NASSAR, Darchinyan’s manager:
“There are not a lot of people who don’t know that every single fight that Vic has asked for Gary Shaw has delivered on.”
GARY SHAW, Darchinyan’s promoter:
“I believe I represent probably a fighter who will go down as one of the greatest boxers to ever fight in the lower weights in the history of boxing. Please tell all the poachers out there that Vic and I are bound together for life. I want everyone who’s on this call to hear that.
“Vic only wants to fight the best fighters. Vic and Elias don’t care about weights. They only want the best fighters and they believe right now that “King Kong” Agbeko is the best fighter at 118 pounds.”
When will Darchinyan fight Donaire again?
“SHOWTIME wants to buy the single biggest fights out there. That’s why he fought Cristian Mijares, that’s why he fought Jorge Arce and that’s why he’s fighting “King Kong” Agbeko. And while he’s been on TV and knocking all these fighters out on TV Donaire has not been heard of or seen. When Bob Arum mentions all his great young fighters he never mentions Donaire. If you haven’t seen those articles I’ll be more than happy to send them to you. Just yesterday he was talking about his Russian fighters and his Puerto Rican fighters. No where did he mention Nonito Donaire. So the answer to that is he has a fight in front of him on Saturday. We have to win that fight and then the question is if we win that fight do we want to stay at 118, move back down to 115 or do we take on (Rafael) Marquez or (Israel) Vazquez or someone of that ilk at 122. That is our plan right now. Vic fights for money, not for revenge.”See you at the Fights.
Thanks for your time.
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