Donaire-Rigondeaux a better fight than Donaire-Mares

By Boxing News - 02/14/2013 - Comments

rigondeaux4By Dan Ambrose: WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (31-1, 20 KO’s) may not be happy that he’s having to settle for fighting a unification bout against fellow Top Rank fighter WBA World super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (11-0, 8 KO’s) on April 13th instead of against WBC super bantamweight champion Abner Mares, but it’s arguably going to be a much better fight than what we would have seen had Donaire taken the Mares fight.

Donaire wanted to fight Mares because it was the bigger money compared to Rigondeaux. Mares, a Mexican fighter, has a large Mexican fan base that backs him, and he’s accomplished a lot more than Rigondeaux because his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions were wise enough to see the value of entering him into Showtime’s bantamweight tourney.

Rigondeaux’s promoter didn’t put him in the tourney, and that cost him a lot because even if he had been beaten, he’d still be a much better known fighter today. If Rigondeaux had won the tourney, he’d still not be as popular as Mares, but he’d be much better known than he is right now.

Rigondeaux is still the tougher fight for Donaire than Mares by far because Rigondeaux doesn’t leave himself open like Mares does. Donaire would have done well against the Mares with his aggressive style of fighting, and I think that’s one of the reasons why Donaire was so eager to make that fight happen.

With Rigondeaux, Donaire will have to create all of his openings. Donaire will have a two inch height and two inch reach advantage over the 5’4” Rigondeaux. That’s not much compared to Rigondeaux’s last opponent, the gigantic 5’8” Robert Marroquin with his four inch height and reach advantage, in addition to his big weight advantage.

Marroquin look like a light welterweight in the ring against Rigondeaux after he rehydrated. If Rigondeaux was able to handle Marroquin’s size, then he’ll have no problems in taking care of Donaire, who is two inches shorter and a lot lighter than Marroquin.

The Donaire-Rigondeaux fight will be taking place at the Radio City Music Hall, in New York, New York, USA.



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