BOXING AT IRVINE : Van Horn Picks the Right Time to Warm Up

About the time Darrin Van Horn got warmed up, his International Boxing Federation super-middleweight title bout against top-ranked challenger John Jarvis was over.

Van Horn knocked out Jarvis with an overhand right at 1:11 of the third round Saturday before about 1,000 at the Bren Center on the campus of UC Irvine.

“I was struggling to that point,” Van Horn said. “I had hit him a few times, but I wasn’t smooth and I could feel it. I tried to measure it so that he would hit me a few times, but not hurt me. Once I get hit, I usually get going.”

Neither fighter looked very sharp in the first round, but Van Horn was more active and won it. In the second round, Jarvis, of Richmond, Va., got going and scored twice with short rights.

Then, in the third round, Jarvis started to throw a long right, but Van Horn was quicker, landing a right to the chin of Jarvis, who went down.

“I just threw the punch and was lucky he was coming forward into it,” said Van Horn, who improved to 47-2 with 27 knockouts.

Jarvis didn’t move until referee Lou Moret had counted to six and didn’t start to get up until Moret was at nine.

“I guess he caught me before I caught him,” Jarvis said. “He hit me with a good shot. I don’t agree with the count, but what can you do? It seems like when he got to six, he was counting for speed. I told him that I was all right, but it was too late. I thought I could have covered (up) the rest of the round and gone on with the fight.”

Van Horn, 22, earned $80,000 for defending the title he won in May with an 11th-round knockout of Lindell Holmes. Jarvis (22-3) got $25,000.

Actor Mickey Rourke was featured on the undercard as he took on former Olympic gold medalist Frank Tate in a three-round exhibition bout.

Both fighters wore protective headgear, and only a few solid punches landed.

Some of the crowd encouraged Tate to knock down Rourke, but Tate was content to throw jabs at the actor’s chin.

Tate charged Rourke to start the third round and gave a display of his quickness, then reverted to a slow pace. After the bell, the pair hugged.