Interview with Jorge Arce

Since the announcement of the mega fight between WBA interim super flyweight champion Jorge “Travieso” Arce (51-4-1, 39KO) and undisputed 115 lbs king Vic “Raging Bull” Darchinyan (31-1-1, 25KO), most of the verbal barbs have been delivered non surprisingly by the latter.  What has been surprising is that Arce for the most part has been taking the high road and not shared his now famous eloquent counter attacks for Darchinyan’s insults and boasts.

Until now! MyBoxingFans talked with “Travieso”

“I just know that I am going to KO Darchinyan, I am going to make him into dust, I am going to tear him apart. I haven’t said much because he is the champion and he should sell the fight.  Before when I was talking about Mijares, it was because he was trying to pass himself off to the public as very humble and educated but the truth is that he is arrogant and I was trying to sell the fight because he wasn’t,” and Arce does not stop with his past and future opponents but also goes after those who say that the “Raging Bull” is at his peak while Arce is rapidly sliding down the other side of the mountain, “I am going to make them retract what they have been saying.  Everybody thinks they know boxing, that they can talk about your career.  People talk because they have a mouth, they think they know what they are talking about but after this fight, they will regret saying that I am finished.  I am not finished and I will prove it with this fight,”Arce, 29, states with conviction from the mountains of Temoaya, MX, about an hour car ride south from Mexico City, MX, where he prepares himself for his February 7th challenge for the WBA, WBA and IBF straps at The Pond in Anaheim, CA, and broadcast by Showtime.

“I am super motivated for this fight.  Since my loss to Mijares, my opponents have not brought out the best of me, I have not been as focused as I have been for this fight.  I always train at one hundred percent but for this one I am going to one hundred and fifteen. If my trainer asks me to run forty five minutes, I run for an hour and fifteen minutes, if he asks me to spar twelve rounds, I do fourteen.  I am in great condition physically and mentality which for me has always been a big part of my success.”  After working with Margarito’s trainer Javier Capetillo in the Los Angeles area for many of his most recent bouts, Arce is back with Tiburcio Garcia, “I fractured my hand versus Rafael Concepcion and the doctor who has always treated me is near here in Toluca so I decided to do my camp here plus Capetillo couldn’t come because he is with Margarito but I don’t discard the idea of working with him again in the future.”

Along with the physical preparation, Arce who hails from the boxing hotbed of Los Mochis, MX, stresses that no detail is being over looked and that a sound strategy is being prepared “I am working with lefties.  I know that in the past I have had problems with them such as it was with Tomas Rojas and I didn’t look my best with Lookmahanak but his was a different case.  That was a big error made by my team because they didn’t tell me that he was a southpaw.  I didn’t find out until I saw him do glove work three days before the fight.”  Arce continues “I am working on my angles, on my stance versus a southpaw.  I have all of Darchinyan’s fights and I have noticed a lot of technical deficiencies.  He is basically a fighter who uses only one hand and I am going to take advantage of that.”

Despite that they share two past opponents with very different results against each one, the fact that “Travieso” has lost to both Cristian Mijares and Victor Burgos while Vic Darchinyan of Armenia by way of Sydney, Australia, has knocked them both out does not faze the interim WBA super flyweight champ “all fighters go thru stages.  First of, I don’t think that Burgos beat me.  Burgos didn’t want to give me the rematch and when I fought Mijares, I was going thru a different stage.  I was getting married, I was in love and I wasn’t focused.  For Darchinyan to think that the way those two fights ended for me and for him make a difference, that is a big mistake.”

“Mijares was over confident when he fought Darchinyan.  You could see it on his face.  He looked different.  But I think that when he felt that uppercut that Darchinyan hit him in the first round, he got scared.  He thought that because he had beat me, that he could beat anybody and it backfired.  Darchinyan better not make the same mistake because I have something that Mijares doesn’t and that is power.  Power that I have carried to super flyweight,” Arce states.  “Mijares doesn’t hit hard, he can’t even knockout his grandmother but once I hit Darchinyan with a left hook to the jaw, he is going to learn to respect me.

Something that Darchinyan has not done much of, not only for Arce but for the rest of the Mexican opponents that he has faced and systematically defeated.  As far as to go on the record and call himself the “Mexican Killer”, a nickname that does not please the proud Arce “I don’t really care what he calls himself or what he says.  I know that punch-by-punch I will make him eat his words.  We are going to see who is the bigger man on the night of February 7th.  I think that he was very disrespectful towards Burgos after their fight (Burgos was sent to the hospital and suffered a coma which forced him to retire after he was stopped by Darchinyan in the 12th round of their March 3rd, 2007 bout).  Boxing is a beautiful sport and you should respect your opponent.  He never showed remorse for what happened and never visited Burgos in the hospital.  I think he needs to learn to be a better person.” 

But Arce not only has been motivated by Darchinyan’s verbal dagger like attacks but also by the words of former three time divisional champion Erik Morales who publicly criticized Arce for calling himself a multi weight class belt holder after winning the Interim WBA super flyweight title with his defeat of Rafael Concepcion in September of last year.  “Once I defeat Darchinyan, I will have those three belts around my waist and that motivates me to be able to call out Morales on his comments that but still he shouldn’t talk, he should just stop eating hamburgers because he is to fat…” Arce says with a resounding laugh.

“I wasn’t bothered when Fernando Beltran countered some of the comments that Darchinyan recently made on Fightnews.  I actually was very pleased, he is my promoter and he should defend me.  Plus what he said was true, Darchinyan does not have a fan base and he didn’t get up from the canvas when he was dropped by Donaire.  I have visited the canvas too but I get up every time and I think that is going to be the difference in this fight,” Arce continues.  “I am considering this the biggest fight of my career.  The one that can make the biggest impact on my career.  i am very focused and I want the fans to be ensured that they are going to see the best “Travieso” there is, like the one that defeated Hussein Hussein.  I want them to see that when I am prepared at more than 100%, I am unstoppable.  This fight means a lot to me especially because it is against Darchinyan, he needs to respect Mexico and I am going to show him how to do that.  This is my last fight in this weight class, I am leaving the division and I am going to bantamweight and eventually super bantamweight, I want Israel Vasquez.”

“I am very happy and proud to fight in front of my fans in Los Angeles.  I want to put the name of Mexico in a high place.  I haven’t decided how I am going to do my ring entrance, but they can expect something different, maybe I’ll go in a helicopter.  Once in the ring I’m going to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee….” Arce says with a chuckle before he turns serious.  “This is the fight of my life and only dead will I leave that ring without those three belts.  The fans in the venue or on TV better not blink or turn their heads because I don’t want them to miss when I knockout Darchynian.”