By Eric Baldwin: Former Nicholas Walters knockout victim Nonito Donaire says Walter’s ‘No mas’ quit job he did last Saturday night against WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko was “shameful” and he can’t believe he actually did it.
For the boxing fans that didn’t get a chance to see the fight last Saturday night, Walters quit after the 7th round against Lomachenko in their fight at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight was televised by HBO World Championship Boxing, and even the commentators for the network were surprised at Walters choosing to quit after the 7th round had ended.
Donaire, 34, thinks Walters simply didn’t want to be there inside the ring with Lomachenko. He’d never seen Walters fight like that in his career with the way he was just holding his hands up and not throwing punches. Like a lot of boxing fans, Donaire’s opinion is that the 30-year-old Walters should have gone out on his shield by fighting until he was knocked out the way many fighters do. Donaire doesn’t like the idea of a fighter quitting on his stool when they’re still capable of fighting.
Donaire mentioned that Walters hadn’t fought in a year, and had said that HBO hadn’t given him any fight dates. He’s not sure why Walters looked like he didn’t want to fight, but he doesn’t understand it because he was so different from his previous fights.
Donaire said this to Fighthype.com about Walters quitting against Lomachenko:
“I was surprised,” said Donaire about Walters quitting. “I came in there thinking they would go to war. Lomachenko is right in front, and Walters is that type. When he went with me, we were going at it back and forth. What he did was shameful. I could not imagine [Walters quitting]. I’ve never seen him fight that way, just holding his hands. He didn’t want to fight. He didn’t want to be in there. He didn’t do anything really spectacular that we haven’t seen,” in speaking about Lomachenko. “He’s always been spectacular fighting, as it is. We’ve seen him that way with other fighters too. It was an unfortunate thing with Walters,” said Donaire.
It’s difficult to disagree with Donaire about Walters looking bad out there against Lomachenko. Walters’ body language from the moment he stepped into the ring was one of a timid and even unmotivated fighter. Walters didn’t seem to have the same fire in him that we’d seen in his past fights. Walters wasn’t letting his hands go, and he was frequently waiting for Lomachenko to throw his shots first.
It’s unknown if this was the game plan that Walters and his training team had for the fight. It was the plan, then they should have changed it and gone with something else when it became clear that it wasn’t going to work.
Donaire’s own boxing career has taken a turn for the worse recently with him losing his WBO super bantamweight title to Jessie Magdaleno earlier this month on November 5 in losing a 12 round unanimous decision. Donaire did not look impressive. However, he still has the punching power to potentially capture another belt in the 122lb division if matched correctly by his promoters at Top Rank.
HBO commentator Max Kellerman didn’t like the way the Lomachenko-Walters fight ended, but he understood why the fight ended in that manner. Walters was being dominated, and it was no longer about who the better athlete of the two was. Lomachenko had already established that he was the better fighter than Walters. Kellerman points out that boxing has a tradition where the top fighters are supposed to go out on their shield in fights. Walters failed to follow that tradition despite being a top fighter.
Kellerman said this to HBO about the Lomachenko vs. Walters fight:
“Who do I actually think is the best fighter in boxing right now? I think it’s Lomachenko,” said Kellerman. “He’s not proven it. I can’t put him pound-for-pound number one yet based on his resume. I suspect he’s the best fighter in boxing. This was a disappointing fight. Nicholas Walters made a rationale choice that a rationale human being would make, but in boxing culture, whether it’s a good tradition or bad tradition, it is the tradition that top fighters to go out on their shields. Even though the athletic competition had been decided, Nicholas Walters quit in the way he did is a disappointing end to this fight. But it speaks volumes to the kind of fighter Lomachenko is that he can take very good fighters and make them look ordinary and even make them want to quit. It’s going to take a special kind of fighter to beat Vasyl Lomachenko,” said Kellerman.
It’s still too early to say for sure whether Lomachenko is the best fighter in the sport. Top Rank is going to need to match him against better fighters than the ones he’s faced. Thus far, Lomachenko’s best opponents in his seven-fight career have been against Orlando Salido, Gary Russell Jr., Roman Martinez and Walters. Lomachenko’s record against those four fighters is 3-1. That’s not exactly No.1 pound for pound material. Lomachenko needs to add other top names for him to cement himself in as the top pound for pound fighter. We’re talking about names like these:
Francisco Vargas
Jason Sosa
Jezreel Corrales
Oscar Valdez
Carl Frampton
Jesus Cuellar
Manny Pacquiao
Terence Crawford
Jorge Linares
Robert Easter Jr
Ricky Burns
Eduard Troyanovsky
Danny Garcia
Keith Thurman
Errol Spence Jr.
Tim Bradley
I do think that Lomachenko will fight some of those guys before he retires from boxing one of these days, but definitely not most of them. I don’t think Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is going to ever put Lomachenko in with solid welterweight punchers like Thurman, Garcia or Errol Spence Jr. It’s not because they’re much bigger than Lomachenko. I think it’s more of a case of them not being in the same Top Rank stable. Lomachenko will likely mostly fight guys in Arum’s stable except when fighting someone like WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan, and making title defenses of whatever titles he wins in the future.