Donaire to fight Montiel in November – News

By Boxing News - 07/11/2010 - Comments

By Eric Thomas: WBO super flyweight interim champion Nonito Donaire (24-1, 16 KO’s) will be moving up in weight to take on World Boxing Council bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel (41-2-2, 31 KO’s) in November, according to Badlefthook.com. Donaire, 27, revealed the information on his Facebook page, saying that his promoter Bob Arum is putting the finishing touches on a fight between him and Montiel.

If this fight happens, then Montiel will likely not face Rafael Concepcion, who he is scheduled to fight on July 17th in Mexico. A fight against Donaire obviously would be the much bigger money fight for Montiel, and he wouldn’t want to mess things up by possibly suffering a bad cut or an injury of some kind in the Concepcion fight.

Montiel, 31, is coming off one of the best wins of his 14-year pro career with his 4th round TKO over WBC bantamweight champion Hozumi Hasegawa on April 30th. It was a big upset, as many people thought that Hasegawa would have too much firepower for Montiel to deal with. Instead, it was Montiel who hurt Hasegawa with a big shot and then jumped all over him and snowed him under with shots until the fight was stopped moments later in the 4th round.

Montiel is far from unbeatable, though, as we saw in his losses to Mark Johnson and Jhonny Gonzalez in the past. However, he is shorter than the 5’6” Donaire by two inches and will have to come to him when he’s looking to land his shots. Donaire has a wicked left hook that he likes to nail his opponents with while they’re coming at him.

And Donaire also has a really good right hand as well. He may not be as hard a puncher as Montiel, but he hits hard enough to be a real problem for him unless he’s careful. If Arum can set this fight up, it would be a huge fight, because Montiel considered the best in his weight class, and Donaire has been thought to be the best at super flyweight.

Donaire is moving up in weight to the bantamweight division because he’s finding it increasingly difficult to make the 115 pound super flyweight weight limit. The bantamweight class gives Donaire a little more room to make weight without draining himself so much, as the weight limit is 118. Donaire will likely need to move up yet again soon even from that division. We could be seeing Donaire at super bantamweight before we know it.



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