By Dave Lahr: On February 19th, WBC.WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel (44-2-2, 34 KO’s) defends is titles against the younger challenger Nonito Donaire (25-1, 17 KO’s) at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The 28-yer-old Donaire comes into the fight the favorite. However, when you have the kind of huge power like Montiel, it doesn’t matter whether he’s the underdog or not, because he creates his own opportunities at a moments’ notice.
Donaire doesn’t like to get hit. In fact, he flinches and backs away from it when he’s hit hard. On 2/19, you can expect for Donaire to do a great of backing away, as Montiel starts up with huge salvos early on in the fight to get Donaire running for his life.
In an interview of Montiel’s trainer and Brother Manuel Montiel at philboxing.com, Manuel had this to say about the Donaire-Montiel fight: “Nonito is a great fighter but Fernando will be on him like a dog, he will put the pressure and that will be the key. I don’t think that Donaire will be able to withstand the pressure and the knock out will come.”
Donaire really hasn’t had to deal with too much with pressure from his opponents because most of them have let Donaire be the one to come forward and make the fight. But on the few occasions when Donaire has had a fighter that’s come forward looking to land, Donaire has looked frightened out of his element.
Montiel’s other brother, Pedro Montiel, said this about the fight: “Fernando is ready to go 50 rounds. There is no way Donaire will last the distance. Don’t get me wrong Nonito is a great fighter and we respect him. He is a great counter puncher but he will be force to make mistakes, when you put the pressure on your opponent in the right way, there is no doubt your foe will make mistakes.”
There it is. Both of Montiel’s brothers have spoken and laid out the problems Donaire’s going to have in this fight. Montiel is going to put pressure on Donaire and they don’t expect Donaire to react positively when met with the constant pressure from Montiel. They’ve left out talking about Montiel’s huge power. He doesn’t even have to do a lot of pressuring because once he starts landing, he’s going to have Donaire hurt.
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