By Chris Williams: If there was ever a fight where you can predict with a high degree of a certainty that it would end with someone getting knocked out it’s the April 13th unification bout between WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (31-1, 20 KO’s) and WBA champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (11-0, 8 KO’s) at the Radio City Music Hall in New York, New York.
Both fighters have excellent hand speed, power and boxing skills, but both of them are vulnerable to getting knocked out in this one. Donaire, 30, may have never been knocked out during his 12-year pro career, but this is the first time he’s ever faced a really good body puncher/counter puncher like Rigondeaux, so it doesn’t really matter that he’s not been stopped yet.
It also doesn’t matter that Donaire has a good chin because it’s not the chin that Rigondeaux will be aiming his shots at. He knows full well how hard it is to make contact with Donaire with head shots, and he knows Donaire can take a healthy shot. But that’s why Rigondeaux will be looking to hit Donaire to the body where he’s a lot easier to hit, and he’s less tested in this area of his body.
Rigondeaux has been hurt in fights against Ricardo Cardoba and Robert Marroquin, so we know that he’s vulnerable to head shots when getting hit with hooks. Donaire isn’t any more of a puncher than Marroquin and Cardoba is, but he’s faster and he likes to use his left hook for everything. That’s his main weapon of choice.
Without his left hook, Donaire is vulnerable fighter because his right hand is nothing special. He’s still got a good jab, but Donaire doesn’t use it very much because he’s so in love with his left hook. He forgets himself and doesn’t fight smart.
That’s the problem with Donaire. He’s like someone that learned a trick and that’s all he does is use that trick and over again. Donaire’s trick is his left hook, and he had better hope that he can hurt Rigondeaux with it because if he doesn’t he’s going to get knocked out.
I see it as a 50-50 fight. It comes down to whichever fighter that can land their power shots. If Rigondeaux is able to counter Donaire’s big left hook swings with hard body shots, we may see Donaire crawling on the canvas trying to get his breath after getting chopped down with a body shot he doesn’t see coming. By the same token if Donaire can land his left hook on the button enough times, he’ll surely knock Rigondeaux out.
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