Kellerman sees Donaire beating Nishioka, possibly by knockout

By Boxing News - 10/04/2012 - Comments

Image: Kellerman sees Donaire beating Nishioka, possibly by knockoutBy Allan Fox: Max Kellerman sees IBF/WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (29-1, 18 KO’s) as having too much talent, youth and power for 36-year-old former WBC super bantamweight champion Toshiaki Nishioka (34-4-3, 24 KO’s) to deal with in this advanced stage in his once career in their October 13th fight at the Home Depot Center, in Carson, California.

Kellerman said to Thaboxingvoice.com “He’s [Nishioka] a tremendous fighter, but he’s 36-years-old and Donaire is a special talent…Donaire might knock Nishioka out. I think he’s that good.”

Or Nishioka is that old. I don’t know that I would go predicting a knockout for Donaire because he’s kind of shown in his last three fights that he’s not the puncher that he was when he was fighting at flyweight and super flyweight. In that regard, Donaire is in the same boat as Vic Darchinyan, who also saw his knockouts disappear after he moved up to bantamweight and now super bantamweight.

Donaire couldn’t knockout Omar Narvaez, Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. and Jeffrey Mathebula, and I highly doubt that he’ll be able to move the tough Nishioka. It’ll be interesting to see Donaire try, but I suspect he won’t get anywhere close to knocking this guy out.

Donaire says he wants to clean up the super bantamweight division, and he’s slowly doing that. However, a lot of boxing fans suspect that Donaire will opt to play it safe by avoiding the toughest targets Abner Mares and Guillermo Rigondeaux, and will instead choose to milk his two titles after beating up the fading Nishioka on October 13th, and then move up in weight to featherweight to try and get some important fights at that weight.

Kellerman believes that Donaire isn’t knocking guys out anymore because he’s facing really quality fighters. That could be true but I don’t consider Mathebula a great fighter and Donaire couldn’t do anything with him other than knock him down once. I think a more realistic view about why Donaire isn’t knocking guys out anymore is because his power didn’t carry up with him after he moved up in weight.

I don’t think Donaire will find his power again, not at this weight. What this means is that Donaire is going to take a lot of punishment from now on in his fights. He’s already started taking punishment in his last two fights against Mathebula and Vazquez Jr. Nishioka will continue with that trend by giving Donaire a slight beating, but still I expect Donaire to win the fight.



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