By Edward Chaykovsky

On Saturday night, Vic Darchinyan came close to avenging his 2007 knockout loss to Nonito Donaire. After eight rounds of action, Darchinyan was way up on two of three scorecards in his rematch with Donaire at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas. But during the ninth Darchinyan got caught by a  big counter that put him down and he never recovered.

At the time of the stoppage, Darchinyan was up 78-74 on two cards and the third judge had it a draw. Donaire improved to 32-2 with his 21st knockout, and Darchinyan fell to 39-6-1

"We were doing great up until that point," Darchinyan said. "I felt I was winning the fight. He caught me with a few shots and that's just the way it goes."