By Chris Williams: WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire thinks Manny Pacquiao fought a brilliant fight before getting knocked clean out in the 6th round last Saturday night against Juan Manuel Marquez. Donaire thinks it was just one of those things that happen when you get hit hard and end up poleaxed.
Donaire said to RingTV “Pacquiao fought brilliantly, except for that unexpected turnaround.”
I don’t know what Donaire is talking about. There was no brilliant to Pacquiao’s sloppy performance. If anything, it was a poor performance because Pacquiao was rushing forward recklessly just looking to overwhelm the highly skilled counter punching Mexican warrior Marquez with punches as if he were fighting one of his promoter Bob Arum’s hand-picked opponents.
This wasn’t Ricky Hatton, a slow as molasses Antonio Margarito or a 41-year-old Shane Mosley that Pacquiao was in with. This was a counter punching expert that had arguably gotten the better of Pacquiao in their three previous fights going into last Saturday’s bout.
Pacquiao should have figured out in the 3rd round, after he got knocked down, that this was going to be a much different fight this time around. Trainer Freddie Roach could have and should leashed Pacquiao at that point and focused on a more tactical game plan. That knockdown probably made Pacquiao more susceptible to getting knocked out in the 6th because he looked genuinely stunned by 3rd round knockdown.
Pacquiao tried to bum rush Marquez from the 5th round on and he really paid the price for it when Marquez finally caught him with a nice shot. Even when Pacquiao’s plan was working for him in the 5th and 6th, you could see that Marquez was going to catch him with a big shot because he was punching so hard and Pacquiao was just blindly rushing him like he was one of the faded guys that he’s been beating on lately.
Donaire will be fighting Mexican Jorge Arce (61-6-2, 46 KO’s) this Saturday night at the Toyota Center, in Houston, Texas, USA. Donaire could end the Filipino three fighter losing streak from last weekend with the losses of Mercito Gesta, Pacquiao and Michael Farenas, but Donaire isn’t facing a really tough opponent for this fight like he would be if he were to be fighting Guillermo Rigondeaux or Abner Mares.
Arce is a good fighter but he really belongs at flyweight or super flyweight, not super bantamweight. He’s too small for this weight class at only 5’4” and he doesn’t have the power, speed of counter punching ability to make up for his lack of size. He’s a straight brawler and that’s not going to work against the much bigger, faster and powerful Donaire.
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