Walters halts Darchinyan in five, puts career in doubt

 
IT took Vic Darchinyan nine-and-a-half rounds against Nonito Donaire to make his run to a featherweight title look credible.

 
But all it took Jamaican Nicholas Walters was five rounds and a singular left-hook to make that decision look like a foolish one, dominating the Armenian-born Darchinyan in a one-sided defence of his ‘regular’ WBA featherweight strap in Macau overnight.

 
Darchinyan, 38, was made to look every bit of his age as his usually durable defence crumbled at almost the first time of asking by Walters, 28, who looks like a threat in a stacked featherweight division.

 
A confident Darchinyan was made to pay for his ignorance early on after being floored by Walters as he made the ill-advised decision to showboat. While Darchinyan still offered a punchers chance, it was evident early in the piece that he was up against it.

 
Walters, a former victim of Australian Luke Jackson in the amateurs, entered the fight under a cloud of mystery – as few had seen much footage of the big punching wildcard – not that it bothered Darchinyan.

 
With the loss, Darchinyan’s record slumped to 39-7-1 (28 KOs), while Walters resume improved to (24-0, 20 KOs).

 
At flyweight and super flyweight, Darchinyan at times appeared to be a wrecking ball. But despite his impressive form in the Donaire fight, featherweight appears to be one division too high for the potential future Hall of Famer.

 
At times, Darchinyan attempted to use his footwork, a new element to his game added by head trainer Edmond Tarverdyan, but the taller and clearly physically stronger Walters continually found a way to beat him to the punch.

 
The opening of the fifth signalled the beginning of the end for Darchinyan, who began to wrecklessly lunge forward. Darchinyan had success early with left-right combos – but in this round – it had no effect. Walters realised he could not miss with singular shots and did not stop throwing them, despite Darchinyan landing a counter left-hook.

 
Walters closed the show in impressive fashion, landing a two-punch combination that temporarily hurt Darchinyan, who was felled almost instantly. Walters smelt blood and went in for the kill, landing a left hook flush, followed by another flurry of punches that buzzed Darchinyan before landing the fight-ending hook.

 
The loss was Darchinyan’s second consecutive and was his fourth loss in in his last six fights.

 
While a fight with world-rated Australian Joel Brunker might draw interest locally, it appears as if Darchinyan has little interest in a domestic showdown.