Jessie Magdaleno vs. Nonito Donaire – Results

By Boxing News - 11/05/2016 - Comments

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By Jim Dower: #1 WBO Jessie Magdaleno (24-0, 17 KOs) defeated WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (37-4, 24 KOs) by a surprising 12 round unanimous decision upset on Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Donaire, 33, only has himself to blame for the loss, as he didn’t start to really attack the 24-year-old Magdaleno until the last four rounds of the fight. By that point, Magdaleno had built up a wide insurmountable lead that Donaire couldn’t narrow down.

The final judges’ scores were 116-112, 116-112 and 118-110. The 116-112 score was a fair one.

Donaire dominated the championship rounds in appearing to win rounds 10 through 12. Donaire hurt Magdaleno right a right hand to the head in the 10th. Magdaleno did a good job of surviving that rough period.

In the 11th round, Donaire stalked Magdaleno around the ring, nailing him with big shots. The southpaw Magdaleno was able to connect with some nice shots to make the round close, but they were no comparison to the bombs that Donaire was dropping in the round.

Donaire hit Magdaleno with some hard right hands to the head in the 12th round. Magdaleno was in pure survival mode in that round, as he knew he had the fight won and he wasn’t going to take chances.

The 9th round saw Magdaleno hurt Donaire with a hard left hand. Donaire was driven to the ropes where he took a lot of punishment to the head. Donaire tried to fight back, but he took a lot of heavy shots in that round. It’s a credit to Donaire that he was able to survive the flurry of punches that Magdaleno threw, because it was pretty brutal looking. By the end of the round, Donaire’s face looked bruised from the shots that he was hit by in the round.

This defeat is bad news for Donaire’s career, as he wasn’t facing the best fighter in the super bantamweight division in Magdaleno. There are arguably better fighters than Magdaleno such as Scott Quigg and Guillermo Rigondeaux, who Donaire has already lost to in the past in 2013.

Donaire got old tonight. It’s hard to believe that Donaire is the same fighter who was voted the ‘Fighter of the Year’ by the boxing writers in 2012. That might as well have happened a million years ago, because Donaire is not the same fighter he was back then. The Donaire that received that award would have wiped the deck with the likes off Magdaleno, because he had much better hand speed and reflexes back then. Donaire had the power tonight to do the job on Magdaleno, but he just couldn’t pull the trigger on his punches.