FanHouse Vic Darchinyan

Among the motivations for Joseph Agbeko entering Saturday night's defense of his IBF, 118-pound title against Yonnhy Perez is his desire to achieve the greatness of two of his African predecessors.

Like Agbeko, a 29-year-old bantamweight titlist, Ghaninan legends such as three-time champion Azumah Nelson and former belt-holder Ike Quartey, hail from the city of Accra. Nelson excelled as a featherweight (126) and super featherweight (130), and Quartey, as a welterweight (147).

Nelson and Quartey have made appearances at Agbeko's training sessions, encouraging him during his quest to be considered among the sport's best fighters, pound-for-pound.

On Halloween night in Las Vegas, King Kong will return to American soil in an attempt to strike terror in the heart of at least one man at Treasure Island Resort and Casino.

The fighter who goes by the nickname, "King Kong," is Joseph Agbeko of Accra, Ghana, a 118-pound, beast of an IBF bantamweight champion with a record of 27-1 with 22 knockouts.

Agbeko, 29, is direct regarding what he plans to do to Colombian-born power-puncher Yonnhy Perez (19-0, 14 knockouts), of Sante Fe Springs, Calif., in defense of his title.

"I predict a knockout," he said, "because I know I'm going to knock him out."

At age 78, boxing promoter Don King is still at it.

The man who brought the world "The Rumble In The Jungle" on Oct. 30, in 1974, featuring Muhammad Ali's dramatic, eighth-round knockout of George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire, will celebrate that event's 35th anniversary on Halloween with the first-ever, boxing event to be held at Las Vegas' Treasure Island.

That's when IBF bantamweight (118 pounds) titlist Joseph Agbeko (27-1, 22 knockouts) will put his crown on the line against Colombia native Yonnhy Perez (19-0, 14 KOs) of Santa Fe Springs, Calif., as part of an event to be televised on Showtime.

"This event at Treasure Island is going to be a great festival. I'm bringing the eighth wonder of the world to Las Vegas, King Kong," said King, referring to the nickname given Agbeko for his ferocity in the ring.

Boxing has a hard time attracting new fans for many reasons. Two of the biggest are that no one can keep the weight classes straight and no one can keep the champions straight. Below is my attempt to fix that, listing the legitimate champions in each of the eight traditional weight classes.

Vic Darchinyan showed again that he's the best 115-pound boxer in the world Saturday night, pounding Jorge Arce for 11 rounds before the doctor mercifully brought the fight to a close prior to the 12th.

Darchinyan defended his WBC, WBA and IBF junior bantamweight titles, and although Ring Magazine doesn't recognize a true 115-pound champion, it should now: Darchinyan is the best in his weight class.

Ring Magazine ranks the Armenian boxer Vic Darchinyan as the top 115-pounder in the world, but he's going to have a tough test against No. 6 ranked Jorge Arce on Saturday night. At least, I think it will be a tough test. Darchinyan sounds like he thinks he's going to give Arce a beating.

Vic Darchinyan knocked out Cristian Mijares tonight and added two more championship belts to his collection.

Darchinyan knocked Mijares down in the first round, dominated the entire fight, and eventually knocked him out in the ninth round. It was an extremely impressive performance.

Mijares entered the ring with the WBA and WBC 115-pound belts, while Darchinyan entered as the IBF champ. Now Darchinyan owns all three belts. The WBO belt is owned by Fernando Montiel, who fights Juan Alberto Rosas tomorrow. If the winners fight each other, the 115-pound class could be the only one in boxing with a truly unified champ.

Heading into tonight's fight, Ring Magazine ranked Mijares first, Montiel second and Darchinyan fourth among 115-pounders, but with the way Darchinyan dominated tonight, he has to be considered the world's best junior bantamweight.

Darchinyan improves to 31-1-1. Mijares falls to 36-4-2.