The Australian, Australia Dec 18 2004 Fenech's man champion By Petr Kogoy A FIREWORKS display interrupted yesterday's flyweight world title fight in Florida, but when the smoke cleared Australia had a new world champion. The Jeff Fenech-trained Vic Darchinyan claimed the IBF flyweight title with an 11th-round knockout win over Colombian Irene Pacheco. The contest was even after nine rounds before officials took the unusual step of stopping the bout after the fireworks display. Following a 10-minute delay, Darchinyan came out in the 10th round and dropped Pacheco for the first time in the fight with a left hand. Pacheco, 33, took a mandatory eight count, got up and made it to the end of the round. He was dropped again in the 11th round with another pile-driving left hand. Then Pacheco's corner called a halt. Darchinyan's win took his record to 23-0, with 18 knockouts. Darchinyan became Fenech's first boxer to win a world title. "I've finally got the monkey off my back," Fenech told The Weekend Australian. "I went into the fight with a plan for Vic and it worked. The Colombian took a lot of punishment before he hit the canvas the first time in the 10th. "The straight left Vic threw at him in the 11th that finally ended the fight was a piledriver. The punch would have stopped a raging bull in its tracks." Born and raised in Vanaezor, Armenia, Darchinyan was spotted by Fenech at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. "I've waited for this chance a long time," Darchinyan said. "While I'm proud of my Armenian heritage, I am also proud to be a naturalised Australian. "I'm so happy, having my girlfriend Olga Stovvoun in my corner tonight. "This is a dream come true for me. I've been a fighter for 20 years. But I knew if I wanted to win, to beat Pacheco, I needed to throw more punches. He proved to be a tough and very strong opponent." Meanwhile, Kostya Tszyu's manager Matt Watt yesterday questioned the professionalism of promoters Frank Warren and Vlad Warton after continuing conjecture about a fight between the IBF super-lightweight champion and mandatory contender Ricky Hatton. Watt and Tszyu have spent two weeks denying the Australian-based fighter has signed to defend his title against Hatton in Manchester next year. However, Warren insists he has a deal with American pay television network Showtime for a fight between Tszyu and Hatton in April or May. Bombarded by calls from Australian journalists seeking confirmation of the fight, Watt has repeatedly said Tszyu has yet to sign a deal. English promoter Warren has been dealing with Tszyu's American-based promoter and former manager Warton, but neither has had any recent contact with Watt. Watt said he had not held any discussions with Warren and it had been at least three weeks since his last conversation with Warton, although in that time there had been "written correspondence of a very generic, non-specific nature" between them. Watt said he was waiting for Warren or Warton to explain why it made sense for Tszyu to fight in the challenger's backyard at a proposed local time of 4am to accommodate American and Australian television schedules.
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