Donaire vs. Rigondeaux: Can Guillermo defeat the popular HBO fighter Nonito on 4/13

By Boxing News - 04/03/2013 - Comments

donaire22By Chris Williams: If you tune into HBO on April 13th to watch the unification fight between WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (31-1, 2o KO’s) and WBA champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (11-0, 8 KO’s) you might feel like you’re watching a Donaire cheer leading squad because the HBO broadcasters typically give nonstop praise for Donaire each time he fights, in particular with HBO broadcaster Jim Lampley.

If you want to filter out the Donaire praise you might want to watch the fight with the sound turned off because that could give a clearer picture of what’s actually happening in the ring at the Radio City Music Hall, in New York, New York, USA. Donaire is definitely an HBO favorite, and it’s going to be interesting to see if Rigondeaux can pull off an upset by beating Donaire.

I think the only way Rigondeaux can win this fight is by a sudden knockout. I can’t see the judges giving him a lot of rounds because Donaire will be using his huge size and weight advantage to control the shorter Rigondeaux when he’s on the outside, and it’s probably going to take a crushing body shot from Rigondeaux for him to KO Donaire.

Given that Donaire takes a pretty good head shot, I think Rigondeaux’s focus needs to be on Donaire’s soft-looking midsection to try and score a knockout. Donaire lacks muscle tone on his midsection and he has the appearance of fat around the sides of his waist, which is surprising given his weight class and his youth.

Max Kellerman of HBO seems to really like Rigondeaux, so I’d expect him to give him praise for what he’s doing good in the fight, and I think the rest of the HBO crew will be giving Donaire the compliments one after another on April 13th. That’s why I want to see the reaction from the crew if and when Rigondeaux knocks Donaire out with a hard body shots. I hope they can keep their composure in the moment of triumph for Rigondeaux because it would look bad if they start talking him down instead of building him up for what he just accomplished.



Comments are closed.