By Chris Williams: WBA super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (12-0, 8 KO’s) easily defeated WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (31-2, 20 KO’s) by an easy 12 round unanimous decision at the Radio City Music Hall in New York, New York. The final judges scores were 114-113, 115-112, and 116-111.
Donaire was dominated in the first 9 rounds and then scored a knockdown in the 10th round.Rigondeaux then came back and resumed his dominance in easily winning rounds 11 and 12.
The judges scores were a total joke. The only score that was Reasonably close to what actually happened in the ring was the 116-111. Donaire was never in the fight and was missing all night long and looking tentative and scared. He was too slow, too amateurish and too out of league.
In the 12th round, it was Rigondeaux that game out fast, tagging Donaire with a huge left hand to the head that had Donaire grabbing his right eye immediately in pain. For the remainder of the round, Rigondeaux hit Donaire at will, while Donaire could only cover up his injured eye and occasionally throw a wild left hook like a drunk.
In the post-fight interview, Rigondeaux said “I made him look the way he looked, which was bad. I was boxing, moving, and he was frustrated. He’s an excellent fighter with a good punch, but with one punch you can’t win a fight.”
Donaire said: “I thought it was very, very close.”
It wasn’t close and Donaire is going to find that out later on tonight when he watches the fight on replay. He was totally schooled by Rigondeaux and made to look as bad ad Donaire made his previous opponents look.
During the interview, Donaire claimed that he had tore ligaments in his shoulder several fights ago and he needed surgery. The crowd didn’t buy the excuse from Donaire and loudly booed him. Donaire said he wants to move up to featherweight and fight Rigondeaux in a rematch up there because he says he’s having a hard time making weight for the super bantamweight division.
Like I said before, Donaire was given the Fighter of the Year in 2012 off of wins over past their prime fighters Jorge Arce and Toshiaki Nishioka, and little known paper champion in Jeffrey Mathebula and a guy that had recently been knocked out by Arce in Wilfredo Vazquez Jr.
Those wins were empty victories in my view because Donaire was lobbed fastballs by getting those easy fights instead of taking on someone relevant in his prime like Rigondeaux or Abner Mares. Just based on the type of opposition Donaire fought last year, I didn’t see him as Fighter of the year, and I think a lot of boxing fans who aren’t knowledgeable about the sport bought into the hype without looking at the guys that Donaire beat.
For Donaire’s sake, I hope Top Rank promoter Bob Arum talks some sense onto him and has him go in another direction rather than trying to fight Rigondeaux again because if he does it’ll be just as bad as it was tonight with Rigondeaux clowning Rigondeaux and making him look foolish.
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