By Chris Williams: Nonito Donaire (25-1, 17 KO’s) is good at dishing out punishment with left hooks and right hands to the head, but he’s a lot different fighter when he starts getting hit hard. This was the case when he took on Rafael Concepcion in August 2009. Concepcion figured out how to batter Donaire by rushing forward and blasting away on the inside, and Donaire had no defense nor any answer to that style of fighting.

On February 19th, Donaire, 28, is going to be facing a much bigger puncher than Concepcion in 31-year-old WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel (44-2-2, 34 KO’s) in a fight that will be taking place at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. I expect Montiel to be able to blast Donaire into small pieces of rubble in the same way that Montiel was able to destroy Concepcion in three easy rounds earlier this year in July. This was the same Concepcion that Donaire went life and death with.

I think Donaire will do just fine as long as he doesn’t get hit the fight. However, once Montiel starts putting hands on Donaire, the fight is going to evolve into something much more similar to the Donaire-Concepcion fight where Donaire will start looking like a timid rabbit, and will start running laps round the ring nonstop while trying to avoid tasting any more of Montiel’s big right hands and left hooks.

Montiel is the type of fighter where you can’t let him hit you at all, because he simply hits way too hard to remain standing for long once he starts connecting. His power reduces his opponents into fleeing little rabbits, and I expect that’s what Donaire will resemble once Montiel revs up his offense and starts landing. Like I said, Donaire can dish it out but he can’t take shots well, and seems to stress out when he gets hit had with a flush shots to the face. He backs up and gets a panicky look on his face and starts with the old lateral movement around the ring to prevent getting hit again.