Donaire-Rigondeaux: No Jab, No excuse

By @James_theGrad - 04/15/2013 - Comments

donaire888By James Le Blanc: Let me start by saying I am a big fan of Nonito Donaire. As someone from the Bay Area I make it a point to follow all boxers that come from that area. I also must say I was very disappointed with Nonito’s performance but if you are a fan of boxing and you have a number of favorite fighters, soon enough you will see them lose. What bothered me the most regarding this past weekend’s bout at New York’s Radio City Music Hall was the post fight interview and since.

A number of excuses came out of either Nonito’s mouth or his promoter’s mouth which ranged from trouble making weight, shoulder injury, overlooking Rigo, not watching tape on Rigo, not adjusting mid fight, and most importantly not using the jab.

Rigo’s assessment on Nonito was spot on, “You can’t win a fight throwing single punches.” Last year I felt Donaire had issues with Vasquez and Mathebula because he didn’t use a jab. The Jab is a part of boxing; it sets you up for those big shots better than counter punching can. Instead of working for his win, Nonito opted to sit back and hope one of his counters ended the night vs Rigo. This wasn’t the case as Rigo made very few mistakes and stepped away from any danger Nonito presented incredibly. Let me also make a note to say I did not see Rigo “running”. I saw him stepping and moving to the side so remarkably that he made Nonito look like HE was the guy with only 11 wins.

So Nonito to say that they were overlooking Rig is one of the most unprofessional excuses I have ever heard from a boxer. Rigo is a 2x Gold Olympic champion with over 400 amateur wins. He was also a belt holder not just some guy challenging for a belt. This was a unification bout, how in the hell does Nonito not care to watch film on this opponent?  Excuses are for people trying to understand why one of their favorite fighters lost a fight. I for one am not accepting any excuses from Nonito or his camp. I believe it was Jim Lampley that asked Roy Jones if Nonito having a baby was a distraction, but Roy responded by saying, “its life, every boxer deals with distractions.”

I feel Nonito needs work on his boxing skills and should realize that you can’t knock them all out, especially as you go up in weight. He needs to work on his jab to set up his big shots instead of solely relying on the mistakes of his opponents and countering. As I said before I am a big fan of Donaire, he is exciting to watch and Im looking forward to seeing him matched up with another one of my favorite fighters is Juanma Lopez. But I am not accepting any excuse for his recent loss. Rigo was the better man, he was the better boxer, and he won by such a margin that I think he could deal with Nonito in a future rematch.

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