Mikey Garcia: Donaire just had an off night against Rigondeaux

By Boxing News - 04/18/2013 - Comments

donaire55By Chris Williams: WBO featherweight champion Mikey Garcia thinks that former WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (31-2, 20 KO’s) merely had an off night in getting beaten soundly by WBA super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux last Saturday night in New York.

Garcia thinks Donaire will be able to come back from this loss and resume his place at the top wherever he ends up fighting.

Speaking with hustleboss.com, Mikey said “For Donaire. He’s still a great fighter; he just had one of those off nights and that’s it. He could come back anytime he wants at 122 and 126 and still be a very legitimate champion in the division. He still has it. He just didn’t have it that night. He just had one of those off nights.”

So it was just a bad night for Donaire and that’s why Rigondeaux beat him? I think Mikey is really kidding himself if he believes that. Believe me, that wasn’t a fluke thing for Rigondeaux in winning this fight, but if Donaire’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank believes that it was he can always put them back together for a rematch.

Given that Arum doesn’t seem eager to make that happen, it suggests that he might not have confidence that Donaire would do any better a second time around. Indeed, I see Donaire doing even worse the second time because Rigondeaux will likely throw a lot more punches in a rematch and give Donaire a real pounding.

As it was, Donaire’s faced looked badly swollen from Rigondeaux’s hard shots. Can you picture what would have to Donaire if Rigondeaux upped his work rate a little times two? Donaire would look like a mess by the end of the fight.

I do think Donaire could bounce back at 122 if he were to decide to continue fighting at this weight. He has such a huge size advantage over many of the guys at this weight that he’d be able to beat them on size alone much like how former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is able to beat smaller middleweights with his size. But Donaire isn’t going to be able to beat Rigondeaux, and if Donaire moves up to featherweight like he’s talking about, there’s a chance he could struggle at that weight.

Donaire just doesn’t look like the same fighter he was a couple of years ago to me. He looks like he’s starting to slow down a little. This has been partially masked by the soft matchmaking that his promoter Bob Arum has done for him lately by putting him in with over-the-hill fighters Jorge Arce and Toshiaki Nishioka and the little known former IBF champion Jeffrey Mathebula, but Rigondeaux really exposed Donaire’s problems big time.



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