By Allan Fox: 31-year-old Nonito Donaire (33-3, 21 KOs) took a beating tonight in losing by a 6th round knockout to WBA World featherweight champion Nicholas Walters (25-0, 21 KOs) at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
Donaire was on the canvas twice in the fight. He came into the fight having never been knocked down before, but he’d never faced a guy as big and as powerful as Walters. Donaire was knocked down by a hard right uppercut in the 3rd. In the 6th, Donaire was flattened by a right hand by Walters.
Walters did a job on Donaire’s face, as both eyes were swollen up and he was cut over his right eye.
“I thought I’d be good at this weight class as I’m getting older,” Donaire said after the fight. “But I’m not going to take anything away from Walters. I was at my best. I’ve never trained as hard. The size of him, I couldn’t move. I’ve got to go back to the drawing board. I know I can’t compete against guys like Walters. He’s just amazing and overwhelmingly power. He was just overwhelming in the ring no matter what I did. I just succumbed to his size and power, and his overwhelming aura in that ring. We’re looking at it [his career options]. We’ll decide.”
According to CompuBox’s punch stats, Donaire landed 40 of 169 total punches for a connect percentage of 24%. Walters landed 85 of 284 punches for a 30% connect percentage.
Donaire fought well at times, but he just didn’t have the reach or the size to contend with the longer-armed Walters.
Donaire would be wise to move back down to super bantamweight or perhaps bantamweight if he can still make the weight class. He can extend his career if he can make bantamweight, because the 122 pound division is really stacked right now with Leo Santa Cruz, Carl Frampton, Guillermo Rigondeaux and Scott Quigg.
Donaire might struggle against all of those guys. He’d be better off dropping down to 118 to fight at bantamweight against the likes of Tomoki Kameda, Juan Carlos Payano, Jamie McDonnell and Shinsuke Yamanaka.
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