By Allan Fox: Tonight, WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (31-2, 20 KO’s) ran into the 122 lb. divisions fastest puncher and perhaps the best counter punching in all of boxing in WBA super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (12-0, 8 KO’s) in New York in losing a 12 round unanimous decision.
The outcome seemed like a forgone conclusion when Donaire came out in the 1st round and was knocked off balance by a blistering fast left hand from Rigondeaux. Donaire looked thoroughly confused when he went back to his corner after the round.
Donaire gave it his best shot in the round, but he found out that Rigondeaux’s counter punching and speed was too much for him and there wasn’t much he could do. It was strange to see Rigondeaux turning Donaire into just an average fighter.
Donaire looked like he’d aged from his last fight to this one, but the reality is Rigondeaux’s hand speed, counter punching and body punching is what made Donaire look like that.
What Donaire should have done was use his jab and stay on the outside to take advantage of his height and reach. That seemed like the logical thing to do, but Donaire didn’t seem to understand that he wasn’t going to be able to bang Rigondeaux out of there like he had with the over-matched opponents his promoter Bob Arum had been feeding him recently with Toshiaki Nishioka and Jorge Arce.
Donaire’s trainer Robert Garcia kept telling him to throw combinations, but that was poor advice because if Donaire he done what Garcia had said he’d have opened himself up for counter shots from Rigondeaux, and Donaire looked like he wanted no part of throwing combinations.
That’s the sole reason why Donaire threw only one punch at a time because when he tried to throw combinations in the 1st round, Rigondeaux was eating him up with counter shots. If Donaire had stuck with that game plan then the chances are he’d have been knocked out from a body shot from Rigondeaux because his hand speed was just way too fast for Donaire to cope with.
Donaire said after the fight that he didn’t feel Rigondeaux’s power until the 12th round, but I believe he was being disingenuous because he was hit with some really hard shots that turned him into a cautious fighter until he got desperate in the 10th. Even after knocking Rigondeaux down in the 10th, Donaire still wasn’t fighting the way he should have. He wasn’t using his jab and was just looking for big shot to try and knock Rigondeaux out. It would have been a good tactic if this were Jorge Arce he was facing, but against the incredibly quick Rigondeaux, it was a bad game plan.
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