Donaire explains why he struggled against Mathebula

By Boxing News - 07/13/2012 - Comments

Image: Donaire explains why he struggled against MathebulaBy Chris Williams: Another fight and another less than impressive performance from Nonito Donaire (29-1, 18 KO’s). We’d heard all the excuses that Donaire had made recently where he blamed his recent opponents Omar Navarez and Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. for the lack of fireworks in those fights.

In having an obscure light hitting IBF super bantamweight champion Jeffrey Mathebula (26-4-2, 14 KO’s) by his Top Rank promoters, Donaire was finally supposed to look good. He didn’t although he did win a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores of 119-108, 117-110 and 118-109. But Donaire definitely didn’t look good, and the scores were not really representative to the fight that actually occurred in the ring on that night, because it was a lot closer than the lopsided scores. So why did Donaire look so awful again? Good question.

Well, here’s Donaire’s side of the story told to Sports.inquirer.net: “I fell in love with the power. When I knocked him down, I thought I could do it again, instead of setting it up like what Robert [Garcia] told me. The thing that I didn’t do was throw my straight. It would have been different if I was able to keep doing it, but I wanted a spectacular knockout.”

I’d venture to say that Donaire could have thrown the straightest punch in the world in that fight and he still wouldn’t have gotten a knockout. The problem I see is that Donaire doesn’t have the power at super bantamweight to do the things he used to do while fighting in the flyweight division. As such, we’re no longer seeing the one punch knockouts anymore, and instead we’re seeing Donaire get badly marked up in beating less than the very best opposition. If guys like Vazquez Jr. and Mathebula were able to mark Donaire up in taking him the distance, just imagine what Guillermo Rigondeaux and Abner Mares would be able to do to him. It would likely be a massacre.

The weight that Donaire has put on since moving up to super bantamweight doesn’t appear to be all muscle. He looked like he was carrying around a slight layer of flab on his physique for the Mathebula fight, and I can only imagine what Donaire will look like if and when he moves up to featherweight. Unlike Manny Pacquiao, Donaire doesn’t seem to be able to put on pure muscle and move effortlessly between weight divisions.

Donaire looked like he put on flab for the. If he moves up again, I’m really afraid we may see some fat hanging off his sides like a couple of saddle bags. I hope for Donaire’s sake he doesn’t move up in weight again, because the Mathebula and Vazquez Jr. fights proved pretty clearly that Donaire would be out of his league if he moved up another division, and he’s likely get whipped if he faced anyone good at featherweight like Yuriorkis Gamboa, Gary Russell Jr. or Orlando Salido.



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