Donaire vs. Montiel: Nonito is going to taste defeat on February 19th

By Boxing News - 12/26/2010 - Comments

Image: Donaire vs. Montiel: Nonito is going to taste defeat on February 19thBy Chris Williams: Former IBF flyweight champion Nonito Donaire (25-1, 17 KO’s) has the tough task of facing the hard punching WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel (44-2-2, 34 KO’s) on February 19th at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Up until this fight, Donaire, 28, has been accustomed to being the bigger the bigger puncher in his fights. That streak of facing nothing but weak punchers is about to end in February when he takes on fighter that is a bigger puncher than him in 31-year-old Montiel.

This is going to be an interesting fight to see how Donaire reacts to the big shots coming from him from Montiel for as long as this fight lasts. Donaire’s promoter Bob Arum has pretty much been keeping Donaire on the shelf hidden away ever since stopping Vic Darchinyan by a surprise 5th round knockout in July 2007. It’s sad that Arum has failed to match Donaire competitively since then, as he’s been forced to take what in effect amounts to seven stay busy fights in the past three years.

By now, Donaire should have been matched up against a quality fighter many years ago. Unfortunately, he’s languished away and has done zero until now. I’m just afraid that the time that Donaire has spent facing contenders and not stars will really hurt him negatively when he’s forced to face the best fighter in the division in Montiel in February. In Donaire’s last fight, he was matched against light punching Wladimir Sidorenko on December 4th. Sidorenko, a former WBA bantamweight champion, had lost two out of his last three fights coming into that fight. It was another easy fight for Donaire but not one where he was really pushed the way he will be against Montiel. I suspect all the wasted time that Donaire has spent in the last three years will hurt him to the point where he’ll be way out of his class against Montiel and will taste the canvas many times before the fight is mercifully stopped with Donaire bleeding on the canvas.



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