A southpaw with a highly unique fighting style and formidable punching power, Darchinyan became the first Armenian boxer to win a world title in 2004.
His father told him there was no professional boxing in Armenia (or any Soviet countries; this changed when the Union fell in 1991) and instead wanted Vic to follow in his footsteps and take up wrestling.
[2] Darchinyan and his wife Olga, an English teacher, met near an Opera House in Sydney, Australia in 2001.
Vic Darchinyan won a bronze medal at the 1998 European Amateur Boxing Championships in Minsk.
From November 2000 to December 2004, Vic built up a record of 21–0 (16 ko's) and captured the Australian, Oceanic and Pan Pacific flyweight titles.
He won his IBF title on 16 December 2004 in his first fight in the United States, defeating respected then-undefeated champion Irene Pacheco of Colombia, via 11th round technical knock-out.
[10][11] Returning to Australia, his first title defense was on 27 March 2005 against long time contender and IBO belt holder, Mzukisi Sikali, in a crowd-pleasing brawl.
By the 8th round, Sikali took a combination body and head shots and turned away in a 'No Mas' fashion, prompting referee Pete Podgorski to step in and wave it off.
Returning to the USA headlining on ShoBox: The New Generation, his third title defense was against Filipino contender Diosdado Gabi on 3 March 2006.
Glenn gave up during the fight, claiming Vic broke his jaw in the 6th round from an alleged elbow attack.
[16] In his sixth title defense, Darchinyan faced former light flyweight champion Victor Burgos on 3 March 2007.
[20] Darchinyan returned three months later and won the vacant IBO super flyweight title by stopping Filipino veteran Federico Catubay.
On 2 February 2008, Darchinyan fought Z Gorres to a controversial split draw at the Waterfront Hotel in Cebu City, Philippines in an IBF Super Flyweight Eliminator where the winner would challenge the champion Dimitri Kirilov.
The crowd was upset with the referee calling the slip a knockdown and began to pelt the ring with bottles of water, coins and other objects.
Six months later, Darchinyan was back in what most experts called a career-best performance, taking on IBF super flyweight champion Dimitri Kirilov on 2 August 2008 at the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma Washington.
[24][25][26] On 1 November 2008, Darchinyan fought WBC and WBA super flyweight champion Cristian Mijares at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California.
Darchinyan was the aggressor from the outset, getting inside with big punches, including a left uppercut that knocked Mijares down in the first round.
[32] Darchinyan successfully defended his unified WBC, WBA, IBF and lineal titles on 7 February 2009 against multiple time champion Jorge Arce, winning by TKO in the 11th round.
[33] On 12 December 2009, having vacated his IBF belt in an unsuccessful attempt to move up to bantamweight, Darchinyan successfully defended his unified WBC, WBA and lineal titles against interim champion Tomás Rojas, winning by KO in the 2nd round.
[35] On 6 March 2010, Darchinyan successfully defended his unified WBC and WBA titles against Rodrigo Guerrero, winning a unanimous decision.
He lost a unanimous decision in a fight he looked almost too overly aggressive in and was picked at with straight right hands.
On 20 May 2010, Darchinyan won the vacant IBO bantamweight title with a one-sided unanimous decision victory in his adopted land of Australia over Eric Barcelona.
Mares had been throwing dirty punches the entire fight, however, and continued to do so, being warned 16 more times after the point deduction.
On 24 April, one day after his fight, he joined thousands of Armenian Americans on the streets of Los Angeles in a march to commemorate the Genocide.
[47] On 3 September 2011, for a homecoming bout in Armenia, Vic battered tough African contender Evans Mbamba (18–2, 9 KOs) for twelve one-sided rounds (Darchinyan won 120–107 on two cards and 119–107 on the third), maintaining the mandatory WBA No.
The headbutt and elbow thrown by Yamanaka had raised much controversy, as Darchinyan was winning the fight beforehand and his performance seemed to slow down as consequence.
[50] Darchinyan moved up in weight class afterwards and, on 29 September 2012, defeated Luis Del Valle to win the vacant NABF super bantamweight title.
[52] Afterwards, Darchinyan fought up another weight class and challenged Nicholas Walters for his WBA featherweight title on 31 May 2014 in Macau.
[55] Two more knock out victories against Prayoot Yaijam and Cris Paulino saw Darchinyan finishing 2015 by winning the vacant WBC–ABCO super bantamweight title.
[58] On 21 September 2008, Darchinyan and fellow boxer Arthur Abraham were honored by Armenian President Serge Sargsyan during a 20th anniversary celebration of the nation's independence.