Garcia: Donaire has fought better guys than Rigondeaux

By Boxing News - 03/01/2013 - Comments

donaire45By Chris Williams: Robert Garcia, the trainer for WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (31-0, 20 KO’s), says he’s not that impressed with his opponent WBA World super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (11-0, 8 KO’s), and Garcia thinks Donaire has already fought better guys than him before and beaten them. Garcia says he’s not impressed Rigondeaux’s long amateur record of 400 fights, and sees him as a fighter that can only fight well for 2 or 3 rounds at best.

Donaire and Rigondeaux will be facing each other on April 13th in a fight that will be televised by HBO at the Radio City Music Hall in New York, New York.

Garcia said to thaboxingvoice.com “I don’t see him having problems with Rigondeaux…once he gets hit by Nonito, don’t expect the fight to last very long. Nonito has been in with better and more experienced fighters than Rigondeaux…he might be able to go 2 or 3 rounds, 400 fights, but he only fights 2 or 3 rounds in each fight. It’ll be a different story.”

Donaire has fought guys with a lot more professional experience than Rigondeaux, there’s no question about that, but as far as Donaire having fought better a lot of better guys than Rigondeaux that’s probably just wishful thinking on Garcia’s part. I’d like to think that Garcia was a little better judge of talent than that because it’s worrisome if he believes the guys that Donaire has fought in the past are better than Rigondeaux.

I wonder who specifically Garcia feels is better than Rigondeaux. I hope he’s not talking about the over-the-hill Toshiaki Nishioka, who Donaire claimed was the best fighter in the super bantamweight division. No one bought that, and Nishioka looked like the worst fighter in the division when Donaire faced him last year in October and stopped him in the 9th. Arce , another Donaire opponent, also isn’t as good as Rigondeaux.

As far as the rest of the bunch that Donaire fought, these are the best guys he’s fought: Jeffrey Mathebula, Wilfredo Vazquez Jr., Vic Darchinyan, Omar Narvaez, Fernando Montiel, Hernan Marquez, Wladimir Sidorenko, Rafael Concepcion, Raul Martinez, Moruti Mthalane, and Luis Maldonado. None of those guys would beat Rigondeaux, and it’s laughable to even think about it.



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