By Chris Williams: You have to hand it to Top Rank for their perfect match-making for their fighter Nonito Donaire (25-1, 17 KO’s) last Saturday night. Instead of putting him in with a dangerous puncher, they picked out the weak punching former WBA bantamweight champion Wladimir Sidorenko (22-3-2, 7 KO’s) for Donaire to fight, and the results were impressive for Donaire.

Donaire ended up knocking the Ukrainian fighter down four times en route to stopping him in the 4th round in their fight at the Honda Center, in Anaheim, California. Sidorenko, who came into the fight having lost two out of his last three fights, ended up on one knee on the canvas at the time of the stoppage at 1:48 of the 4th round with a badly bleeding and swollen nose. His nose may have been broken because it was swollen badly.

Donaire, 28, was moving up in weight from the super flyweight division to take this fight, had too much speed and power for the weak punching Sidorenko. However, Sidorenko did get Donaire’s attention in the few times in the fight that he landed. It makes you wonder whether Donaire will be able to take the shots from the much bigger hitting WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel, who Donaire faces on February 19th next year.

Donaire will have a two inch height and reach advantage over Montiel, but unless Donaire can keep from getting hit too much in the fight, he may have problems with Montiel’s power. Donaire looks good when he’s throwing and landing punches but he doesn’t look good when he gets hit. On a couple of occasions when Sidorenko landed last night, Donaire’s legs and reactions weren’t good. He looked a little shaky. If Sidorenko is able to do that with Donaire, Montiel will likely plant him on the canvas for the 10 count.

In the 1st round, Donaire glided around the ring always moving to his left throwing jabs into the reddening face of Donaire. It was clear immediately that Sidorenko was too short and too weak to do much against Donaire. In other words, it was great match-making by Top Rank to find a weak puncher that Donaire can beat without getting his chin checked. Donaire quickly staggered Sidorenko with a right hand that landed high on the Ukrainian’s forehead. Donaire followed with a couple of left hands that further had Sidorenko in trouble. Donaire would continue to stagger Sidorenko until putting him down in the final seconds of the round with a left hand followed by a big right.

Donaire mostly jabbed in the 2nd round, making Sidorenko’s face turn a nasty red from all the shots. Sidorenko looked reluctant to mix it up and spent most of the time on the outside absorbing shots. Late in the round, Donaire landed a big left hook but Sidorenko took it.

In the 3rd round, Sidorenko landed a powerful right hand in the finals seconds but Donaire countered immediately with a left hook that put Sidorenko down for the third time in the fight.

Donaire ended matters in the 4th round after landing a left-right combination that caused Sidorenko to back up and go down to one knee in a delayed reaction. Sidorenko’s nose bled like a faucet and there was no way he could continue to fight in that condition.

All in all, I give Donaire credit for beating a guy that was struggling badly at the time of the fight. Sidorenko had lost two out of his last three fights, was in his 30s and had no power to speak of. Great match-making but not someone that was any threat to Donaire. This is the type of fighter that Donaire does good against. He has problems against punchers, and Sidorenko was the opposite of that. Put Donaire against a weak puncher like Sidorenko and he’ll win every time.