By Chris Williams: In a real massacre, WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (37-3, 24 KOs) totally annihilated an over-matched much smaller #3 WBO Zsolt Bedak (25-2, 8 KOs) in a 3rd round TKO on Saturday night in Donaire’s first defense of his WBO 122lb strap at the Cebu City Sports Complex in Cebu, Philippines.
Donaire knocked the 33-year-old light hitting Bedak down three times in the fight. The ending came in the 3rd round, when Donaire hit an already hurt Bedak with a right hand that put him down on the canvas. Bedak got back to his feet but the referee Russell Mora determined that Bedak was too hurt to continue.
The fight was stopped officially at 2:44 of the round. Bedak’s right side of his face was badly swollen from the left hooks and uppercuts that Donaire kept hitting him with in the fight. Bedak literally had no defense for Donaire’s left hook.
In the 2nd round, Donaire hurt Bedak with a big left hook staggered him badly. Moments later, Donaire landed a huge left uppercut that dropped Bedak on the canvas. Not long after that, Donaire dropped Bedak with a hard left hook to the head. Just as Bedak got back to his feet, the round ended. If there was more time in the round, Bedak would have been stopped because he was very hurt and right side of his face was swollen up like he possibly might have had damage to his jaw or cheekbone from Donaire’s hard left hooks. In that round, Donaire landed a lot of left uppercuts. He made it a point of throwing uppercuts. Donaire would have been better off focusing on his left hook, because he was telegraphing the uppercuts and putting himself in danger by throwing so many. Bedak was able to land right hands to the head of Donaire due to him being so dialed in to throwing uppercuts.
You have to give Bedak credit. He didn’t stop throwing meaningful punches after he was knocked down the first time in the 2nd round. Bedak did what Donaire or anyone would least expect him to do by attacking Donaire with right hands after the knockdown. Donaire was over and over by Bedak as he was attacking him trying to finish him off. If this was someone with punching power like Scott Quigg, Carl Frampton or Guillermo Rigondeaux, I think Donaire would have been hurt with all the shots that Bedak was landing. Donaire was wide open for everything Bedak threw.
The first round was uneventful with Donaire throwing next to no punches at all other than jabs. He attempted a few big left hooks, but they came up missing the mark. It was fortunate for Bedak that he didn’t get hit with any of Donaire’s power shots in the opening round because he would have been in trouble because Donaire loaded up on a few of them. Bedak landed some nice right hands to the head of Donaire, which showed that he’s still very easy to hit since his loss to Nicholas Walters in 2014.
Donaire’s defense is nonexistent and that’ going to be a problem for him when he eventually is matched against someone with punching power and/or a good chin at some point in the future. Donaire’s last opponent 23-year-old Cesar Juarez didn’t have much punching power, but what he did have was a great chin. This enabled the young Juarez to hang around for the full 12 rounds and nail Donaire repeatedly with his shots.
Donaire looked very, very bothered by Juarez’s punches despite the fact that he had zero power. What this means is that Donaire is going to be in for a world of hurt when he faces someone that can take his power. Sooner or later, Donaire will get beaten again. It’s only a matter of time because he doesn’t seem to be able to take shots nearly as good as he can give them.
Overall, Donaire looked pretty devastating tonight in dispatching Bedak. What Donaire showed is that his punching power is just as good as it ever was. He still punches very hard for a super bantamweight. However, Donaire didn’t look like a super bantamweight. Donaire looked like he’d rehydrated to the 140s for the fight. He was huge. More power to him that he can get away with draining down to make 122 in order to take advantage of his size against smaller fighters. But sooner or later, Donaire will start to have problems making weight for the super bantamweight division, and when that happens, he’s going to be forced to go back up to featherweight where he was struggling before.
The featherweights hit harder and there are fewer easy marks in that weight class like there is in the 122lb division. Donaire would need to be able to take hard shots for him to be able to succeed at featherweight and I don’t think he can.
I see Donaire’s career surviving only as long as he can make weight for the super bantamweight division. Once he can no longer make weight for this division, he’ll be at the mercy of guys like Gary Russell Jr., Lee Selby, Vasyl Lomachenko and Leo Santa Cruz at featherweight.
I don’t think Bedak deserved to be ranked in the top 15 because he’s been fighting scrubs since he turned pro 12 years ago. The only good fighter that Bedak had faced going into tonight’s fight against Donaire was Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. in 2010, and he knocked Bedak out in the 10th round of that contest. Bedak then went back to fighting scrubs and won his next 10 fights over these little known fighters until getting wiped out by Donaire tonight. If you were to pick the perfect opponent for Donaire to KO, you would pick Bedak. He had an impressive looking record, which was totally padded unfortunately, short in height, and no power to speak of. Donaire can beat these type of guys. I don’t think Donaire can beat the top dogs at 122 like Rigondeaux, Quigg, and Frampton.