By Chris Williams: WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire received 2012 Fighter of the Year from a number of boxing news organization for his wins over a handful of older, little known and recently knocked out fighters.
Donaire is now finally on the verge of facing his first real quality in ages in his upcoming April 27th fight against WBA World super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux on April 27th on HBO. Nothing has been confirmed yet about the fight, but it’s like a sold for April 27th.
The only way the fight doesn’t happen now is if Bob Arum of Top Rank can work a deal with Golden Boy Promotions for Donaire to fight WBC super bantamweight champion Abner Mares in April. That’s just not going to happen. Donaire obviously wants the fight with Mares because the guy is made to order for him with his come forward brawling style of fighting, but the Golden Boy – Top Rank cold war will likely doom that fight from getting made in April or pretty much forever.
Donaire needs to be focusing on Rigondeaux because it’s time that he finally proves himself that he’s worthy of all the accolades fans and different boxing sites have been giving him.
Rigondeaux is going to be a tough out for Donaire due to his speed, counter punching ability, knockout power and defensive skills. Rigondeaux likes to set traps for his opponents and take advantage of them when they attempt to load up on their shots. Donaire is one of those types of fighters that Rigondeaux traditionally does very well against. He loves to fight guys that load up on their shots like Donaire does, because he catches them coming forward and immediately after they throw a shot. Donaire is going to get hit a lot in this fight, and he’s not been tested to the midsection before like he’ll likely be by Rigondeaux. Donaire can take a pretty good head shot, but I wonder how well he’ll be able to stand up to Rigondeaux’s body shots.
Hopefully Donaire doesn’t get cold feet and decide he wants to fight another aging super bantamweight like the ones he’s been fighting recently. Boxing fans want to see him fight Rigondeaux because it’s time already. If Donaire doesn’t have what it takes then it’s good that boxing fans find out sooner rather than later because some of them see him as the replacement for the aging Manny Pacquiao. At least after this fight we’ll know if Donaire can be that guy or not.
Comments are closed.