By Dave Lahr: If you look at Nonito Donaire’s fight with Rafael Concepcion in 2009, you’ll see Donaire showing signs of pain on his face frequently when Concepcion was landing body and head shots against him in the fight. It looked almost like Concepcion was a school bully beating up on a skinny new kid. Donaire looked horrible in that fight and hardly did enough win it. Donaire basically started running early after tasting Concepcion’s big power. Now fast forward to February 19th, as Donaire is facing a much bigger puncher and better fighter in WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel (44-2-2, 34 KO’s).

Donaire will be tasting pain life he never tasted it before, and believe me, he’s not going to like it one bit. When Montiel starts to go to Donaire’s body with powerful hooks, Donaire is going to grunt and feel the knives going into his ribs and abdomen and he’s going to be in pure agony. The pain from those body shots are going to make Donaire feel as if he’s dancing in a pool of burning wax. He’s not going to like and immediately, I see the thoughts of quitting entering Donaire’s head.

The pain is going to get much worse when Montiel starts landing head shots and his punches rearrange Donaire’s facial features. When he feels his nose crunch from one of Montiel’s right hands, Donaire is going to realize that his nose has been broken and he’s going to think about safety. He’s going to want to be back at home on his couch watching television in a nice safe and protected cocoon. The only way to get there is to take the defeat like a man and quit. The lips will get busted too, and that’s going to make it even worse for Donaire.