Donaire vs. Narvaez: Nonito takes on another short guy

By Boxing News - 10/10/2011 - Comments

Image: Donaire vs. Narvaez: Nonito takes on another short guyBy Chris Williams: Once again Nonito Donaire (26-1, 18 KO’s) faces another short guy, this time it’s the tiny 5’3″ Omar Narvaez (35-0-2, 19 KO’s) on October 22nd at the MSG-WaMu Theater, in New York, New York. Narvaez just happens to be 36-years-old, and fights in a division below Donaire at super flyweight.

It sure helps when you pick out a guy from a division below you to fight, because it almost guarantees that the fighter is going to be smaller. Donaire will be defending his WBC/WBO bantamweight titles for the first and likely the last time in this fight, as he plans on moving up in weight after this fight to take on WBO super bantamweight champion Jorge Arce, and then after that WBC super bantamweight champion Toshiaki Nishioka.

Narvaez is the WBO super flyweight champion, but his title won’t be on the line on October 22nd, because he’s moving up in weight to challenge for Donaire’s titles.

This is very likely going to be a route with the 5’7″ Donaire wiping the deck with the little 5’3″ Narvez. Donaire has too much size and speed for Narvaez to compete with and it’s going to get quickly out of hand early on. Narvaez is slow and tends to plod forward to throw big winging punches. At super flyweight, he’s been able to get away with a lack of size and speed due to the lesser opposition at that weight. But at bantamweight, Narvez is going to be literally out of his league in this fight and won’t have the size to compete with the towering Donaire. Look for a quick knockout victory for Donaire.

Donaire’s trainer thinks he can move up multiple weight classes and continue to find success. I agree in part. I think Donaire will do well as long as he’s carefully matched each step of the way. Once Donaire gets to featherweight, he’ll have to be kept away from Juan Manuel Lopez, Orlando Salido and Yuriorkis Gamboa because they’ll knock him out. I’ll be in shock the day Donaire faces someone his own size that’s any good.



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