Jorge Arce Still Looking for Greatness

He’s a hard-nosed veteran of 45 professional fights, became a household name in Latin America with his colorful personality that shone through on the Mexican version of “Big Brother VIP,” and also happens to be the WBC flyweight champion.

Aged to a boxing prime 26 years of age, Jorge Armando Arce Armenta is doing just great, and hopes that greatness in the ring is just around the corner.

Saturday night in Las Vegas the little man who became known as “El Travieso” (The Troublemaker) while appearing under the watchful eye of “Big Brother,” overpowered top-ranked Hussein Hussein to claim the interim version of the WBC 112-pound title. It was the second time this year that Arce had defeated Hussein (28-3, 21 KOs), whose only other defeat was a decision loss to current WBC champ Pongsaklek Wonjongkam.

The recipe for success this past weekend followed a familiar path as Arce came out stalking his Australian opponent and firing crisp, accurate combinations with bad intentions. Setting everything up with a hard jab, “El Travieso” certainly was a troublemaker in the ring on this night, creating nothing but problems and pain for the Jeff Fenech disciple. An early night became apparent when a hard overhand right caught “Hussy” and sent him down hard to the canvas midway through the opening round. Hussein rose quickly and looked alert, but pre-fight comments by Fenech that his fighter had to get to the body to have any chance at victory held true.

With a power-packed punching machine on front of him, Hussien had no means of getting in close in order to put his strong body work to the test and before the close of the second round the fight was over. It was a second hard knockdown of Hussein, this time courtesy of a beautiful left hook, which prompted his corner to throw in the towel. The bout looked to be nothing more than a continuation of the TKO10 victory by Arce in March of this year as Hussein looked unable to answer Arce’s fierce two-fisted attack.

Having turned to the professional ranks of pugilism at the tender age of 16, the Los Mochis, Mexico native Arce has now gone six years without a defeat. His 41-3-1 (31 KOs) record includes a loss in his fifth pro fight to Omar Nino Romero (currently 21-1-1), a defeat to former champion Jose Victor Burgos, and a TKO11 setback as he was dominating Michael Carbajal before being stopped late as Arce defended his WBO light flyweight title back in 1999.

Since then Arce has simply been unbeatable, literally, as he claimed the WBC fight flyweight belt in 2002 with a convincing TKO6 win over Yo Sam Choi fighting in hostile territory of Seoul, Korea. He successfully defended that title seven times until making the move up from 108 to 112 pounds last year and has stopped each of his opponents as a full flyweight.

Clearly Jorge Arce has many years ahead to establish himself as one of the little great men we have seen in the ring but he knows it will require great fights that only the highest quality opposition can provide. He has openly called out 34-2-2 Nicaraguan Rosendo Alvarez as an opponent he would love to face but stated he is willing to fight anyone, anywhere. If that means traveling to Japan to meet current champion Wonjongkam then you can consider Arce packed and ready.

With the lighter weight divisions lacking a star to shine under the bright lights of Las Vegas and bring attention to the many quality fighters just over 100-pounds, Arce has already proven he can shine on television and in the ring. He brings youthful energy and charm to the sport with an infectious smile that wins people over before he lets the fists fly. His performances in the ring have already attracted a following among boxing insiders and word is just now starting to get out as to how good this kid can be. Jorge “El Travieso” Arce continues to be a troublemaker for whoever he meets in the ring, and so far that has been just great.