Undefeated WBC Silver Bantamweight Champion Abner Mares and two-division titleholder Vic Darchinyan participated in an open media workout at Westside Boxing Gym with Oscar de la Hoya, president of Golden Boy Promotions/ Mares’ promoter in attendance. This Saturday, April 23, Mares and Darchinyan will compete in separate bouts in The Bantamweight Tournament Final: Winner Takes All live on SHOWTIME®.

“I appreciate that people say I’m responsible for getting so many Armenians to go to fights in Southern California and other places, and I expect to see a lot of them waving flags and cheering for me on Saturday. But these people are just good boxing fans that like my style and know that I always give my best and put on exciting fights. If they didn’t like my style, or I made bad fights, they wouldn’t show up,” Darchinyan said, quoted by fightnews.com.

“I am very confident I will knock out Perez, destroy him. I feel stronger than I ever have. I will not slow down if the fight goes into the later rounds. I will not get tired. The last time, I made the weight a week before the fight. This time, I will make the weight on Friday… I hope the referee lets me fight. Against Mares, the ref was in my ear the whole fight: don’t do this, don’t do that, watch yourself here, watch yourself there. Mentally, he took me out of my fight,” he said.

“After this fight, I want to challenge for the title. I want a rematch against Mares or Donaire. For Donaire to say he doesn’t need to give me a rematch, after I gave him a shot at my title, just shows how much he is afraid of me and doesn’t want to fight.”