WBA Featherweight Champion, Jamaican Nicholas Walters (23-0) will face Armenian former World Champion Vic Darchinyan (39-6-1) on his second title defense scheduled for May 31st at the Venetian in Macao, China.
Walters was scheduled to defend against #14 ranked Alejandro Perez (19-4-1) who recently lost a split decision to Juan Carlos Martinez (19-14-1) in which was supposed to be a tune up fight.
According to Walters´manager Jacques Deschamps, the names of high ranked Ukranian Oleg Yefimovych and Japanese Satoshi Hosono were considered by top Rank Promotions as possible challengers.
“We had to wait until the release of the WBA rankings and fortunately the name of Darchinyan emerged as a solution for the promoter because he is better known worldwide than Yefimovych or Hosono” said Deschamps.
“Now Nicholas will face an experienced fighter with a complicated style, strong puncher and southpaw stance which makes this a way more difficult match than the original one against Perez, but these are the fights we need to demonstrate the quality of Walters. It´s a tougher fight but we accepted because we trust Nicholas and it is important for him to be on the same card of Nonito Donaire vs Simpiwe Vetyeka who will fight for the WBA featherweight Super Championship”, added the manager.
At his training camp in Panama, Walters starts his preparation to face the most famous opponent of his career. “I just got the confirmation of Darchinyan as my challenger so we started setting sparring sessions with good Panamanian left handed fighters for the following weeks. Also my father and brother will arrive from Jamaica to help my main trainer Celso Chavez”, said the champion.
