By Ryan Wardle: Current WBA super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (11-0, 8 KO’s) was rumored to have had talks to schedule a fight with recently crowned 2012 Fighter of the Year, and current WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (31-1, 20 KO’s).
However, over the past few days Golden Boy Promotions has claimed to have made a $3 million dollar offer to Donaire and Top Rank to schedule a fight with current WBC super bantamweight champion Abner Mares (25-0-1, 13 KO’s). Many boxing fans view this as too good to be true, as Top Rank and Golden Boy rarely do business together. Fans consider a possible match up between Rigondeaux and Donaire as not only a potentially exciting unification bout, but also as the easier fight to make.
Rigondeaux boasts a decorated amateur pedigree, having won the gold medal in both the 2000 and 2004 Olympics at bantamweight and is a seven time Cuban national champion. His last fight was scheduled to take place December 15th but was cancelled due to his opponent, Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym, failing a pre-fight drug test. The last time he was seen in action was back on September 15th when he defended his title against Robert Marroquin (22-2, 15 K.O.’s). During this outing he easily outpointed Marroquin on his way to another successful title defense.
Rigondeaux is a southpaw who possesses a vast amount of power in his strong left hand. He relies on his counter punches and knockout power, and is very much a skilled technical boxer. He applies pressure to his opponents and frequently lands damaging body shots. It would seem as though he has the right combination of skills to be highly touted by many fans. Yet, there are doubters and one way to erase the doubt is to defeat ESPN.com #6 ranked pound for pound boxer, Nonito Donaire.
Many Donaire pundits will argue that despite his strong recognition, he has done little to deserve it and has also fought sub-par competition. Donaire’s toughest test came when he fought Toshiaki Nishioka (39-5-3, 24 KO’s). Nishioka let Donaire dictate the pace of the fight from start to finish. It seemed he fought scared, he constantly had his right hand guarding his jaw from Donaire’s left hook. He showed very few signs of offense and let Donaire back him up, and was eventually defeated in the 9th round via TKO.
Rigondeaux is very much a different fighter, and in the minds of many, he stands a chance against Donaire. If Rigondeaux backs Donaire up and can touch him with his power he can easily do damage. Having been brought up with a lengthy amateur career he also knows how to score points on the judge’s card and is technical enough to outpoint Donaire with a well balanced attack.
Donaire has not been in the ring with a fighter as well rounded as Rigondeaux and, he is coming off of a hand injury that he said wasn’t healed even before the start of his last fight. The matchup is one that boxing fans are anticipating and is one of the better fights to be made in the lower weightclasses.
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