By Esteban Lopez: Last night we saw another great night for boxing that ended in upsetting fashion with WBA super bantamweight champion Guillermo the “The Jackal” Rigondeaux defeated WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito the “The Filipino Flash” Donaire by a 12 round unanimous decision at the Radio City Music Hall in New York, New York.
Rigondeaux executed his game plan perfectly and is now with out a doubt in a different class. He moved so effortlessly around Donaire that it was difficult to watch how Donaire trotted around the ring. Rigondeaux patiently waited for the openings and tagged Donaire again and again throughout the fight, and got out of range before being countered like a well trained and disciplined guerrilla soldier.
Donaire seemed so frustrated unable to effectively cutoff the ring and establish any kind of rhythm and it was as if it he wasn’t Donaire at all. It was a chess match, and entertaining from beginning to end even though the crowd felt otherwise.
Donaire managed to land a beautiful left hand while Rigondeaux was holding and sent him to the canvas. Rigondeaux recovered and was cautious for the rest of the round. In the 12th round, Rigondeaux hit Donaire with a powerful straight left to Donaire’s right eye that hurt Donaire and forced him to keep his right hand guarding his eye and fighting single handed for the rest of the final round.
Rigondeaux taking advantage of the situation fired off some combinations but lifted his foot off the pedal in the closing seconds.The judges fairly awarded Rigondeaux the unanimous decision. It was Rigondeaux who carefully managed the pace, tagging and frustrating Donaire from beginning to end.
It was a close bout. Donaire showed aggression but it was not effective throughout the fight. He failed to let his hands go, effectively cutoff the ring, and attack the body and that earned him the loss.
What’s next for both fighters? For Donaire its unclear. He suffered a bad injury to his right eye which usually spells trouble and a long recovery if it is a fracture. For Rigondeaux maybe the winner of the Daniel Ponce De Leon vs. Abner Mares fight. Both of these fighters would make an explosive match up with Rigondeaux. A great technical fight and a just outcome. My respects for both fighters. These days it’s hard to get the two top guys of their division to face each other.
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