Vetyeka not impressed with Donaire

By Boxing News - 05/25/2014 - Comments

donaire888By Chris Williams: WBA Super World featherweight champion Simpiwe Vetyeka (26-2, 16 KO’s) will be defending his title this Saturday night against Nonito Donaire (32-2, 21 KO’s) in a fight that will be taking place at the Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort, Macao, Macao S.A.R., China. Donaire moved up to the featherweight division recently, but he still hasn’t fought an actual featherweight. Instead of fighting a featherweight, Donaire dragged former super flyweight champion Vic Darchinyan up to featherweight to fight. Donaire took a beating in the fight before stopping the 38-year-old Darchinyan in the 9th.

Vetyeka said that Donaire’s “only strength is his ability to catch his opponent with a surprise punch but I hope he is well prepared to face me because I am. Even if the fight was tomorrow, I’m more than ready.”

Vetyeka is correct about how Donaire’s main asset is to try and catch his opponents with a shot they don’t see coming. If he’s unable to do this, his opponents are able to handle his power without any problems. Now that Donaire has put on weight, he’s not as fast as he used to be, and it’s become more difficult for him to land shots that his opponents don’t see coming. That’s probably the reason why Donaire took such a beating against Darchinyan last November.

When Donaire couldn’t get Darchinyin out with his now slower shots, he was forced to take Darchinyan’s heavy shots for 9 rounds, and Donaire got beat up in the process. Donaire has always been good at being the one dishing out the beatings, but when he finds himself in an actual fight where he has to battle hard, he’s not so impressive.

If Donaire is unable to knock Vetyeka out on Saturday night, he’s going to take a real bad pounding to the point where he’ll likely lose. My guess is a loss to Vetyeka will be a motivator for Donaire to go on a diet and move back down to super bantamweight where he has more advantages against the smaller opposition than he does at featherweight.

Also on the card are the following fights:

Chris Avalos vs. Yasutaka Ishimoto

Evgeny Gradovich vs. Alexander MIskirtchian

Nicholas Walters vs. Vic Darchinyan

If Donaire can get past Vetyeka, which is very much up in the air, he’ll likely face WBA featherweight champion Nicholas Walters next if he gets passed his fight against Vic Darchinyan on the card. Donaire also will likely be facing Evgeny Gradovich in 2015.



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