By Tim Royner: Nonito Donaire (38-4, 24 KOs) is getting ready for his April 21 match-up with former 2 belt champion Carl Frampton (24-1, 14 KOs) at The SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Donaire, 35, sees this fight with Frampton as a fantastic opportunity for him to take his career back to the top for a world title shot.
Donaire lost his WBO World super bantamweight title in 2016 in a 12 round decision defeat to Jessie Magdaleno. Donaire came back from that defeat to beat Ruben Garcia Hernandez by a 10 round unanimous decision last September.
Donaire is being brought in for his name value for the Frampton fight. Donaire is not expected to win, but it’s possible though that he could pull off the upset. Frampton is not invincible, as we saw in his 2 fights against Leo Santa Cruz. Frampton is likely going to try and box him rather than standing in and trading. Donaire is the bigger puncher, and he’s still faster, even at 35. The 30-year-old Frampton has his defensive skills, youth and home advantage going for him. Apart that, Donaire is faster, stronger, and more experienced.
“I believe that this is the fight that will open the gates to bigger fights,” said Donaire to RingTV.com. “This is a must win fight for me, this is a fight that will get me up there.”
Donaire can probably still win world titles if he was still fighting at 122. Donaire matches up well against WBA super bantamweight champion Daniel Roman and IBF champion Ryosuke Iwasa. Even against WBC 122lb champion Rey Vargas, Donaire would have a good chance. Featherweight is a tougher division for Donaire, because his punching power doesn’t carry up to this division as well. Donaire started his career out at flyweight, and he’s won world titles in 4 weight classes. Featherweight is a harder division for Donaire, but he’s not facing a true 126 lb. fighter in Frampton.
Carl is essentially a super bantamweight that moved up a division to seek out bigger and better things. If Frampton can get a shot against IBF featherweight champion Lee Selby in 2018, he has a good chance of taking his title from him, and holding onto the belt for a long time if he chooses to milk the title.
“I see his style, my style, somewhat similar, we both have power, we both can brawl, we can box, we can do all that stuff. I think this is going to be a very interesting fight and I’m very excited for it,” said Donaire.
Frampton like to hit and move. He doesn’t stay in the pocket and slug unless he’s facing an opponent without a lot of power. Frampton will probably choose to use a lot of finesse against Donaire rather than punch with him. It would be too hard of a fight for Frampton if he slugs it out with Donaire.
6 years ago, Donaire was viewed as one of the best fighters in the sport of boxing. Donaire was voted the 2012 Fighter of the year. Things were going great for him. A year later, Donaire was beaten by WBA super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux by a 12 round unanimous decision on April 13, 2013. That loss took the air out of Donaire’s tires. His career really never regained the footing that it had previous to that.
Donaire was beaten by featherweight Nicholas Walters in 2014 in a 6th round knockout loss. 2 years later, Donaire lost to Jessie Magdaleno. Donaire has still been able to win world titles despite losing. Even now, Donaire could easily move back down to super bantamweight and likely capture a title in that weight class if he wanted to. But instead of doing that, Donaire is going after the top featherweights. There’s more money to be made by Donaire fighting in the 126-lb. division than at 122.
If Donaire can handle the mobility that Frampton will be using in the fight, then he’ll have a good chance of beating him. Frampton doesn’t have Donaire’s speed or power.
It’s going to be interesting to see if Donaire can hand Frampton another defeat. Frampton had a lot of problems in his 2 fights with Leo Santa Cruz. In Frampton’s last fight against featherweight Horacio Garcia (33-4-1, 24 KOs), he pressured constantly out-punched at times by the younger Mexican fighter. Garcia came into the fight with Frampton with 2 recent defeats to Joseph Diaz and Diuhl Olguin, but he still gave him a lot of problems.
Frampton-Donaire fight could come down to whether Frampton can stay out of the way of Donaire’s big punches. He’s the puncher in this fight. There’s no doubt about that. Frampton doesn’t possess the power that we saw from Nicholas Walters. Donaire had problems with Walters’ power. Walters was also hurt by Donaire. The fight came down to Walters getting Donaire out of there before he was able to unload fully on him. Had Donaire been able to take Walters’ power for a little while longer, he likely would have knocked the Jamaican fighter out. Donaire had Walters staggering at one point.