By Jason Kim: Photo credit Zanfer boxing – Nonito Donaire (26-1, 18 KO’s) blasted out WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel (44-3-2, 34 KO’s) in a 2nd round TKO on Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. While the 31-year-old Montiel was stopped on his feet by referee Russell Mora at 2:25 of the 2nd round, it was the knockdown that Donaire landed in the 2nd round that has boxing fans talking and wondering how Montiel was able to get back to his feet after such a huge blow.

Donaire landed a perfectly timed left hook to the head of Montiel moments after he had landed a right hand of his own. Montiel’s punch was much harder and left Montiel on his back with his legs in a brief spasm.

After the fight, Donaire had this to say about the punch that he hit Montiel with, according to fightnews.com: “I was so surprised he got up. I put everything behind that punch. It was the hardest one I ever threw on my life.”

Whether that’s true or not matters little. What matters is that the punch was hard enough to put Montiel down and it finished him. Montiel did get up, but he was out on his feet when the action resumed. All Donaire had to do was move forward and tap Montiel two times with a combination and then referee Mora stopped the bout. It was lucky for Montiel that Donaire didn’t connect cleanly with either of those last two shots because Montiel would have been flattened again if Donaire had landed cleanly.

With this win, it’s unclear whether Donaire will stay at bantamweight or whether he’ll move up in weight to try and take on the winner of the clash between WBO super bantamweight champion Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. and Jorge Arce. That’s about the only interesting fight for Donaire at super bantamweight. Donaire needs to take that fight and quickly move up to featherweight to go after Juan Manuel Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa. Those two would be very tough opponents for Donaire because they can both punch.