Donaire: I wasn’t 100% for the Rigondeaux fight

By Boxing News - 07/16/2013 - Comments

donaire#12By Chris Williams: Former IBF/WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (31-2, 20 KO’s) is saying that he wasn’t 100 percent for his recent defeat against WBA super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (12-0, 8 KO’s) last April in New York.

Donaire says he was thinking about his family and was thinking retirement before the fight. I’m sure this will make Donaire’s huge fan base happy, because many of them were under the impression that Donaire had been beaten by Rigondeaux in a fairly convincing manner but Donaire is saying his loss was because he wasn’t at his best.

Donaire also said he’s not surprised that HBO reportedly weren’t excited about showing Rigondeaux’s next fight on their network because of his defensive style of fighting.

Donaire said to RingTV, “I’m not taking away anything from Rigondeaux…But my mind wasn’t really 100 percent on the fight. I honestly didn’t care about it that much. Most of the time, I was thinking about my kid…Rigondeaux has to understand, this sport is about entertainment as much as anything. I had to change my style in order to get on television.”

Now that Donaire has explained why he lost to Rigondeaux, maybe he might be interested in fighting him again now that he’s 100 percent, because Rigondeaux has already said he’s more than interested in facing Donaire again if he’s game. If Donaire wasn’t 100 percent for the last fight, he should be eager to fight Rigondeaux again to show him that the loss was just a fluke thing, shouldn’t he?

That would be the logical move by Donaire to make if his loss to Rigondeaux was because he wasn’t at his best. All he would have to do is tell his promoter Bob Arum to arrange the fight with Rigondeaux and he could then avenge his defeat. The purse split would have to be different this time around because Rigondeaux holds multiple titles now, while Donaire doesn’t hold any titles.

Arum wants to match Donaire against 37-year-old Vic Darchinyan next rather than putting him back in with Rigondeaux. I’m not sure there are too many hardcore boxing fans eager to see Donaire fight Darchinyan on HBO. I think if there was a poll put together for who the hardcore fans want to see Donaire fight it would be Rigondeaux over Darchinyan.

Donaire already Darchinyan by a 5th round knockout years ago, so there’s no reason for them to ever fight again. Besides that, Darchinyan has been beaten several times in the past three years. Last time I checked, Rigondeaux hasn’t been beaten yet. Why doesn’t Donaire twist Arum’s arm to get him to arrange a rematch with Rigondeaux rather than fight Darchinyan again?



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