Rigondeaux will take Donaire’s left hook away from him

By Boxing News - 02/27/2013 - Comments

rigondeaux6By Chris Williams: WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (31-1, 20 KO’s) is a fighter that truly lives and dies by his ability to land his left hook. That’s easily his best weapon in his entire arsenal of punches. His huge lightweight size is obviously Donaire’s number #1 asset at 122, but in terms of his offensive weapons go, it’s his left hook that makes Donaire a tough fighter to beat.

However, on April 13th, Donaire is facing his best opponent of his career by far in WBA World super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (11-0, 8 KO’s), and if there’s any fighter in the sport that is good at neutralizing his opponents’ best weapons, it’s him.

Donaire is going to have a lot of problems in this fight because he’s not going to be able to focus on just using his left hook to win like he’s been doing against his limited opposition. Rigondeaux is arguably the most skilled fighter in all of boxing right now.

There’s really no one in the sport that has the experience the skills of the former two-time Olympic gold medalist from Cuba. Rigondeaux had over 400 fights in Cuba in the amateurs, and he knows how to take his opponents best weapons away from them.

Rigondeaux’s hand speed, punching power, and counter punching is probably the sole reason why Donaire was so reluctant to fight him up until now. Even now, it almost seems like Donaire is still not sure he really wants this fight judging by how he keeps complaining about the drug testing.

Rigondeaux is willing to jump over any obstacles that Donaire sets before him just so he can get Donaire in the ring and test his soft-looking midsection with hard body shots for 12 rounds. Rigondeaux sees the flab around Donaire’s midsection, and he’s noticed that Donaire never gets hit in the body by his limited head-hunting opposition.

Rigondeaux is going to take Donaire’s look hook away from him, and go straight to his body to see if he take body shots for 12 rounds without collapsing on the canvas like many of Rigondeaux’s other opponents have done.

Without his left hook working for him, Donaire is going to be crippled in the ring against Rigondeaux. If you look at Donaire’s fights against guys that were able to take his left hook away from him, Donaire looked nothing like a champion in those fights.

Omar Narvaez, Wilfredo Vazquez Jr, and Rafael Conception all were able to take Donaire’s left hook away from them and give him problems. Those guys failed to win because they didn’t throw body shots and instead aimed everything at Donaire’s head. Rigondeaux will go to the body, and we could see it pay off with Donaire getting taken out.



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