By Chris Williams: There’s no question WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (31-1, 20 KO’s) will have a considerable height and weight advantage over WBA super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (11-0, 8 KO’s) next month in their fight on April 13th at the Radio City Music Hall, New York, New York, USA.
Donaire’s three inch height and likely 15 pound weight advantage may not be enough for him to win, however, because Rigondeaux is such a smarter fighter. 15 pounds and three inches in height is nothing if you’ve got a fighter as smart as Rigondeaux, and who clearly is the more experienced fighter by far of the two.
Rigondeaux has forgotten more about the game than Donaire will ever know. We’re talking about a fighter with 400 amateur fights compared to a fighter with much less experience. Donaire is a guy that has gotten over with his size.
That’s been his whole thing since he started his career at flyweight, and slowly moved up in weight to super bantamweight. Donaire won’t be able to go too much further because once he’s facing guys his own size and weight, he’ll be pretty much at the end of the line because those guys will be able hit him as hard as he’s hitting them, and I doubt he’ll be able to take his own medicine. But before that, I believe Rigondeaux has a great shot of beating Donaire and beating him by a knockout.
Going up against a counter puncher as good as Rigondeaux is going to be incredibly tough for Donaire because he’s going to be getting hit with body shots for a change, and he’s not going to be ready for the speed and power of the shots. Rigondeaux will be setting traps for Donaire all night long, and just waiting for him to throw one of his big shots so that he can counter him with a body shot that will drop Donaire to his knees.
Trying to recover from Rigondeaux’s body shots is almost impossible to do because once he’s got you hurt, he’s able to finish you off with additional shots to midsection. Donaire is one of those guys that can take a real good punch to the head, but his midsection looks soft and flabby, and obviously he’s not used to getting hit hard with the types of body punches that Rigondeaux will be hitting him with on April 13th.
This fight will be won on intelligence, not physical brawn. The smarter fighter will win, and I believe that to be Rigondeaux by far.
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