All it took was one thunderous left to the jaw for Vic “Raging Bull” Darchinyan to retain his flyweight world championship Friday night at the Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez.

But getting that clean shot in against challenger Diosdado “Prince” Gabi took the champ the better part of eight rounds.

The Darchinyan-Gabi fight was the main event on a seven bout card when Showtime's ShoBox series returned to the Chumash's Samala Showroom.

It was another sell out. They Chumash added new stadium seating on the west side of the Samala showroom. That allowed them to go from a sellout of about 1,110 to 1,330 people - making Friday night's crowd the casino's largest boxing crowd ever.

And that crowd came to see the casino's biggest fight ever - a scheduled 12 round IBF/IBO (International Boxing Federation/International Boxing Organization) world championship.

In an unusual matchup of two left handed boxers, Darchinyan - an Armenian who now lives in Syndey, Australia - came in at 24-0 with 19 knockouts. This would be his third world title defense since he knocked out Irene Pacheco to win the flyweight title in December of 2004.

Gabi - the challenger who hails from Davao City, in the Philippines - entered the ring with a solid 26-2-1 record, also with 19 knockouts.

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From the outset, they waged a brutal battle. Both tried to be the aggressor - neither would back off. They traded punches, each looking for the other's weakness.

Darchinyan got in the first solid shot - a straight left to Gabi's face - early in the second round. Soon after, he followed with another and his strategy began to unfold.

“My corner told me to watch for his jab and that's what I did,” Darchinyan said. “Just watch for the jab and I could come over it with a hard left.”

Gabi went away from the jab in the third round and began to land solid body shots - a strategy that gave him some momentum. But whenever he went head hunting, Darchinyan would clobber him with a hard left.

“Gabi's jab was good,” said Darchinyan. “I took lots of his jabs - too many as you can see from my face - but the whole fight I believed I would stop him.”

Through seven rounds the battle rages - going toe-to-toe several times in rapid fire exchanges of punches. The champ had the edge but only a slight one.

Darchinyan found the range with his left early in the eighth round. He began to slam a straight left through Gabi's defenses more and more as the round wore on. With the clock winding down, Gabi tried one more jab - Darchinyan pounded him with a hard left and the challenger went down for the count.

“He was glassy eyed. He'd lost his equilibrium and that was enough for me. I called it,” said referee David Mendoza. “If you let them fight again after you see that - well, that's when they get hurt.”

Officially, Darchinyan won by knockout at 2:42 of the eight round.

“I kept trying to land that hard left earlier,” said Darchinyan. “I tried but I missed. I was rushing it and my corner told me to relax and take my time. In the last round, I just waited for his jab and countered it.”

“You have to take your hat off to (Gabi's trainer) Freddie Roach,” said Darchinyan's trainer Jeff Fenech. “He never brings a fighter into the ring who is unprepared. Gabi showed me something special tonight.''

“That guy's tough,” said Darchinyan. “I knew he could take a punch but I couldn't believe the punches he took.”

A lightweight battle between Rustan Nugaev and Anthony Mora was the co-main event on the ShoBox broadcast. Nugaev came in with a record of 15-4. Mora entered the ring undefeated at 15-0.

It was scheduled to go 10 rounds but about :30-seconds into the first round, it was apparent that Mora's undefeated record was in serious jeopardy.

After the two traded solid shots at the opening bell, Nugaev quickly turned into the aggressor.

Nugaev stayed on the attack and, as the fight wore on, more and more of his punches made it through Mora's defense. Meanwhile, Mora rarely got in a punch of his own.

In the fifth round, Nugaev began to land shot after shot. About two minutes into the round, Mora appeared defenseless and referee Jack Reiss stepped in between the fighters. Reiss called a time out and had the ring doctor check Mora out. The doctor said to stop the fight and Nugaev walked away with a knockout victory at 2:39 of the fifth round.

“It looked like he was in trouble,” said Reiss. “I stopped the fight and had the doctor check him out. I don't think it would have been safe for him to continue.”

On the untelevised undercard, Glenn Donaire and Jose Albuquerque battled to a majority draw in a six round flyweight fight, Nick Casal ran his record to 13-0 with a second round knockout of Jaime Orrantia in a lightweight bout and Aaron Robinson improved to 4-1-1 with a second round knockout of Alejandro Bogarin in a junior middleweight battle.

The evening began with two all Santa Maria amateur bouts.

No winners would be declared in this pair of exhibition matches but the crowd cheered all four fighters for their intense efforts.

In the first match, Adrian Sanchez from the Santa Maria Boxing Club faced Pedro Lopez from the Santa Maria PAL in a battle of 140-pounders.

In the second match, Alex Ascunción squared off against Rocky Nartatas from the Santa Maria PAL in a 111-pound bout.

“We are very fortunate to be able to give these kids this type of exposure,” said Willie Flores, the president of the Santa Maria Boxing Club.”This is great experience for them and we are grateful that Gary Shaw and Showtime invite us to take part.”

Sports Editor Elliott Stern can be reached at 739-2235 or by e-mail at elliottstern@santamariatimes.com.

March 4, 2006