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This is the original recap of Darchinyan's last match in the United States:

Showtime Championship Boxing

July 7, 2007

Harbour Yard Arena-Bridge Port, Connecticut

Tonight's matches will be the first world championship boxing matches in Bridge Port, since 1927.

IBF and IBO Flyweight (112 pounds) 12 Round Championship Match:

Vic Darchinyan (28-0, 22 KO's, 112 pounds) (c) vs. Nonito Donaire (17-1, 10 KO's, 111.5 pounds)

Darchinyan won his IBF Championship with a round 11 TKO victory over Irene Pacheco on December 12, 2004 at what is now the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, Florida during his first trip to the United States.  He won the IBO Championship via round 8 TKO over Mzukisi Sikali in Australia on March 27, 2005.

The champion represented Armenia at the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics as their flyweight boxer.  Barely, more then a month after the Olympics concluded, Darchinyan had his first professional match in Sydney, Australia.  All but 5 of the champion's matches have been in Australia, where he became a legal citizen in 2004.

Darchinyan is coming off a technical knockout victory over Victor Burgos on March 3, 2007 in what ended up being one of the scariest scenes in boxing this year.  Despite being down in round 2, Burgos stayed standing the rest of the match, until the referee stepped in to stop the contest at 1:27 of round 12.  Burgos was standing at the time of the stoppage, but looked real bad.  Burgos left the ring on a stretcher and would go on to spend weeks in a coma at a Los Angeles area medical center, before regaining consciousness.  Darchinyan called that night one of the hardest of his career and phoned the United States from Australia every day to check on the condition of Burgos.  Today, Burgos is back home in Tijuana, walking and talking on his own, with the prognosis for a near full recovery improving.  That match still has to be in the back of Darchinyan's mind, and this match should show if he still has the ability to go at his opponent with the same energy he did before.  Darchinyan says his approach will be the same as it was in that match, but hopes nothing bad happens to his opponent.

This champion is ranked as the number 2 contender to the vacant Ring Magazine Flyweight Championship.  This match is designed to springboard him into a match with a top boxer a weight class heavier at 115 pounds, like Cristian Mijares or Jorge Arce.

Darchinyan style is not technically sound or defensively oriented.  His hands are never positioned in anything close to an ideal boxing stance.  Despite all of that, Darchinyan has never been knocked down, or even hurt/put in any danger enough to need to employ defensive skills.  Darchinyan uses an unorthodox action packed style, with an emphasis on knockouts.  He maintains a high workrate throughout the contest and has incredible power for a boxer his size.

Born in the Philippines, Donaire immigrated with his family to California at the age of 10-years-old.  Donaire has a very good amateur background, making it to the finals of the Olympic trials. in 2000  However, he has not faced top opposition as a professional.  The challenger is coming off 16 straight victories (all at 115 pounds or higher) since his one loss, in only his second match as a professional, back in March 2001.  In the loss, a five round unanimous decision, he broke his left hand and that began what would become a chronic hand injury problem for him.  That could play a part in this match.  The match that earned Donaire this title shot, was a round 1 TKO victory over Kevin Hudgins in May, who was coming off 4 straight losses.

Nonito Donaire is the younger brother of Glenn Donaire, who Darchinyan defeated by technical decision in October 2006.  The match was stopped after round 6, because Donaire's jaw had been broken during the match.  The referee ruled the injury was caused by an accidental elbow from Darchinyan.  Darchinyan said the injury was the result of a punch which have given the champion a TKO victory.  The younger Donaire sided with his brother in the pointless post match arguing of the issue, because the champion still left with the victory and his titles.  However, Darchinyan is still angry about being robbed of a knockout victory, and those who agree the injury was caused by an elbow.  The Donaire challenging for Darchinyan's titles tonight, called the champion an arrogant bully, in response to all of the recent events.   Donaire is being trained by his father, Nonito Donaire, Sr. and this is being billed as a match of him looking to take revenge for the family. Which sounds like the build up Showtime needed to put up a soft opponent for Darchinyan to knockout.  Donaire is a top ten ranked boxers at 115 pounds according to three different organizations, but not ranked in any weight class by Ring Magazine, the unofficial bible of boxing.

Al Bernstein's keys to victory for Donaire are: To move laterally, to avoid Darchinyan coming straight at him.  Land the straight right hand, always the best punch for an orthodox boxer against a southpaw and Darchinyan in particular opens himself up for it.  Donaire also, needs to counter punch effectively, against the missed Darchinyan punches.

Donaire is younger at only 24-years-old, to 31-years-old for Darchinyan.  The challenger has the height advantage standing 5' 6" tall, to Darchinyan's 5' 5.5" tall.  Donaire, also has the wingspan advantage at 68" long, to 64.5" for the champion.  Despite being the bigger boxer, and usually boxing at heavier weight classes, Donaire reportedly had no problems making weight.  Darchinyan employs the southpaw stance, while Donaire will box out of the orthodox stance.

The unified rules of boxing are in effect for this contest.  Two of the judges officially scoring this match are from Connecticut, and the third is from New.  The referee, who is from the 718 (Brooklyn, New York), wants this match to "get poppin' ".

In the first minute of round 1, Darchinyan is hit with more good punches then he has been hit with in any match in his entire career, and potentially in his entire career.  With 1:35 to go in round 1, Donaire is wrestled to the ground and it is correctly ruled a slip.  The referee warns Darchinyan for the sloppily modified hip toss and the action is resumed 6 seconds later.  A Darchinyan right hand, with under 5 seconds to go in round 1, buckles Donaire's knees, and the challenger nearly has some part of him touch the mat while going into a deep squat.  Donaire still wins round 1, 10-9.  Donaire is correctly circling to his left away from Darchinyan's powerful left hand.  The champion is continuing his own sloppy defensive fundamentals, circling to his own left, towards the powerful right hand of Donaire.  Much better round 2, for the slow starting Darchinyan.  It was still not good enough to win the round.  Donaire wins round 2, 10-9.  This match is a technical boxing nightmare, featuring wild punches being thrown by both boxers and abysmal defense being shown throughout by Darchinyan and mixed in by Donaire, who sometimes stands in front of the champion.  However, it is a lot of fun to watch, so far.  Through two rounds, Donaire is probably ahead, 20-18.

The fans, regrettably, start booing the match in the middle of round 3, as the action has slightly slowed.  A left hand with 26 seconds to go in round 3, has Darchinyan hurt and in trouble for the first time in his professional career.  Darchinyan is able to last out the round.  Donaire wins round 3, 10-9.  After round 3, Darchinyan has a bad cut around his right eye and it may become problematic as the match progresses.  It was probably caused by a punch.  He, also has a second small cut on his forehead above and to the side of his right eye, but that should not be a factor.  In the middle of round 4, both of Darchinyan's eyes are beginning to swell and that could be a problem later in the match, if it is not one already.  Darchinyan appears to have things back under control and wins round 4, 10-9.  Through 4 rounds, Donaire is probably ahead, 39-37. The three unofficial scorers from press row have it 38-38, 38-38, 39-37 for Donaire, at this point.  The two press members with the 38-38 scores I am guessing scored round 2 for Darchinyan, based on his strong effort in the second half of the round.  Bernstein has it for Donaire, 39-37, through 4 rounds.

Again in the middle of round 5 the crowd begins to boo this match, for no good reason.  This is a terrible crowd tonight.  With 1:30 to go in round 5, and seconds after the crowd had started booing, a blur of a Donaire left hook, sends Darchinyan down to the canvas for the first time in his career.  Darchinyan tries to stand, but can only stagger around.  He eventually, goes crashing over on the middle rope, across the ring from where he was knocked down at 8, in a desperate attempt to make his legs support his weight.  Darchinyan is not only knocked down for the first time in his career, with a highlight reel left hook, but out.  This punch made the ESPN SportsCenter Top 10 Plays for Saturday.  Darchinyan was not hurt before the punch was thrown, but was out after it landed.  People are going over to the ropes to prevent Darchinyan from following out of the ring and it appears he now has a broken nose.

When the referee stops the match, Donaire drops to his knees and pounds the mat, crying tears of joy amidst a chorus of cheers.  His father is the first to hug the new champion when he stands.

The official decision as read by the "Classy" Jimmy Lennon, Jr. is that: 1:38 into round 5 the referee stopped (when Darchinyan fell into the ropes the count stopped) the contest and the winner by way of technical knockout and the new IBF and IBO Flyweight Champion of the World, "The Filipino Flash" Nonito Donaire.  The win moves Donaire to 18-1 with 11 of those wins coming by way of knockout.

After the match, Darchinyan is laid on the mat to be attended to by the medical people, but appeared responsive initially.  In an eerily similar scene to his last contest, a stretcher is brought out for Darchinyan.  Thankfully, Darchinyan recovers enough in the few minutes it takes for all of this to transpire to be able to leave the ring under his own power.  There have been no reports I can find on Darchinyan being seriously injured.  Take that to be a sign that he is okay and will be back training in Australia shortly.

In Donaire's post match interview he talked about people underestimating his power.  He also, mentioned how surprised he was at how small Darchinyan was.  Donaire has been sparring with a lot of bigger boxers, and in the ring he and Darchinyan looked like boxers in different weight classes.

Darchinyan was able to give a post match interview, saying he was not hurt and wants a rematch.  Darchinyan gave a very poor interview and it can probably be chalked up to the fact he was not fully there, yet.  Given some time to collect himself, think, and watch some replays, the former champion would hopefully say something better, but that is the problem with getting immediate in-ring post match comments from someone who was on the verge of being taken out on a stretcher, 6 minutes earlier.  After the interview Bernstein commented that they had a gracious winner, but that Darchinyan's interview was astonishing.  The former champion did not get the point of how poorly he was doing in this match.  After round 3, Darchinyan came back to his corner and asked if he lost the last round.  His corner told him, "Yeah, of course, you lost the round."  In that round Darchinyan was badly hurt so he may have legitimately not gotten how poorly this match was going for him at points.

The official judges scorecards after 4 rounds had it: 40-36 for Donaire, 38-38, 38-38.

ESPN had a knockout on their air, courtesy of Darnell Wilson, a little over a week ago that they called the knockout of the year, this was probably better.

*Editor's Note: This was named The Ring's 2007 Knockout and Upset of the Year.