Montiel to be back in action by the summer

By Boxing News - 02/22/2011 - Comments

Image: Montiel to be back in action by the summerBy Chris Williams: Former WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel (44-3-2, 34 KO’s) will be returning to the ring by summer at the latest to resume his boxing career and put his loss to Nonito Donaire behind him. Hopefully, this is enough time for Montiel to recover from the knockout loss and the subsequent surgery to repair his fractured right cheekbone. For a knockout like the one that Montiel suffered, he might be wiser to take more time off to heal.

Montiel, 31, plans on campaigning as a super bantamweight, because of the difficulties he’s been having at making the bantamweight limit of 118 lbs. Hopefully, this is the last time that the 5’4″ Montiel needs to move up in weight.

He started his career as a flyweight and his moved up from flyweight to super flyweight to bantamweight and now super bantamweight. With his limited height, Montiel will face huge obstacles should he decide to move up beyond the super bantamweight division to the featherweight class. The fighters at that weight would mostly be larger than Montiel and he could find himself in trouble against those guys. As a super bantamweight, Montiel’s power would still be impressive enough for him to do well at that weight class.

Montiel made a mistake in his loss to Donaire. First of all, he failed to keep his right hand up to guard against Donaire’s tendency to throw left hooks. Had he kept his right up high during the two rounds of action, he would have taken away Donaire’s best weapon, the same way that Rafael Concepcion was able to do with Donaire in their fight in 2009. Secondly, Montiel needed to be smarter by setting traps so that he could time Donaire and land his big shots while Doniare was looking to land his own big shots. By coming after Donaire in the 2nd round, Montiel made himself vulnerable to Donaire’s big left.



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