By Peter Wells: – (twitter- @boxingpeter): So, after a slow and somewhat uninspiring start to boxing in 2013, the big fights are now raining in on us. Fight postponements didn’t help either but now fans are being fed a whole load of tasty match ups in the coming weeks. March had some sensational, fight of the year candidates in Bradley-Provodnikov and Rios-Alvarado 2, and now April and May are ready to deliver their own batch of entertainment.
To give you a quick preview of what follows this weekends Super Bantamweight clash, on 20th April Austin Trout and Saul Alvarez clash in a fight between Light Middleweights top unbeaten fighters. Following that on 27th April is the originally postponed fight between Danny Garcia and Zab Judah, before Mayweather takes on Guerrero a week later. On May 18th, Devon Alexander faces Kell Brook, while on the same card Lamont Peterson defends against hard hitting Lucas Matthysse. And to round May off, is Carl Froch’s highly anticipated rematch against Mikkel Kessler.
This weekend’s clash may be the most anticipated of them all as two of the sports premiere fighters step into the ring to settle a rivalry that began when Donaire first claimed that Rigo needed to prove himself in order to merit a shot at the now WBO Super Bantamweight king. Rigo did just that, destroying whoever, promoter Bob Arum put in front of him. Rigo was floored by Ricardo Cordoba, before winning a split decision, in only his 7th professional fight. Then Willie Casey, Rico Ramos and Teon Kennedy suffered 10 knockdowns between them, as Rigo proved to the world he was a class above.
Rigo’s amateur record is something special. He boasts nearly 400 fights, and only 12 of those were defeats, which is exactly why most people are calling him one of the greatest amateur boxers of all time. In 2009 Rigo had to make the hard decision of leaving behind his family, including his 7 year old son in Cuba, to turn professional in Florida, USA.
His opponent, Nonito Donaire is no stranger to struggles either, growing up in the Philippines, Nonito has followed national icon, Manny Pacquiao into the pound-for-pound rankings. His career was kick-started when he shocked Vic Darchinyan in five rounds, and has since grown and grown. Knockout wins over Moruti Mthalane, Hernan Marquez and most impressively, Fernando Montiel have transformed him into a boxing superstar. His sole defeat came in only his second fight, meaning Rigo will have to snap Donaire’s 30 fight winning streak.
I have a high opinion of both fighters, making this a real hard fight to predict. Nonito has the speed and power advantage, but Rigo has that rare ability to slow even the fastest of fighters
down to his pace. His counter punching is also at a level that simply cannot be taught.
It may be tough to call, but from the moment I first saw Rigo, I believed he had the beating of Nonito, and since then he has only improved. The pick is for Rigo to survive some scary moments early on before taking control of the fight, picking Donaire off with single shots to take a close but unanimous decision.
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