Darchinyan, Agbeko heats up!

The war of words between Joseph "King Kong" Agbeko and Vic Darchinyan has been heating up. The two are scheduled to face each other on July 11 at the Bank Atlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida with Agbeko's IBF bantamweight title at stake.

In a recent conference call and published through a press release, Agbeko and and Darchinyan have stepped their trash-talking up a notch. Darchinyan, with his ever-glib mouthpiece, vowed to give King Kong a Godzilla-sized beating:

“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?"

and further added:

“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."

Agbeko on his part responded by saying,

“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."

If Agbeko's record is any indication, Darchinyan will be in for a tough night as Agbeko holds an impressive 26-1-0 record with 22 of his wins coming by way of knockout. 

Darchinyan will also be treading in new waters as well as this is his initial bout moving up to the bantamweight division after dominating the super flyweight division with impressive victories over the best in the weight class such as Jorge Arce, Cristian Mijares and Dmitri Kirilov.

The lone tarnish in Darchinyan's record is a knockout loss to the aforementioned Donaire. In the same conference call, Darchinyan's promoter Gary Shaw was asked whether Darchinyan would face Donaire again in a rematch. Shaw responded saying,

“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.”

Read between the lines. Darchinyan will probably not face Donaire any time soon if he beats Agbeko and if you base it on what Shaw just said. Darchinyan on his part has stated that he has not qualms about facing Donaire again in a rematch and even said

"I’m going to demolish him (Donaire) in a rematch."

Will Darchinyan pull-off a Jack Black and seize King Kong on the 11th? Or will his trash-talking just anger the champion from Ghana and get him stomped? Either way, it's a fight any boxing fan should not miss.

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.