Donaire-Rigondeaux

By Chris Williams: If Nonito Donaire wants a chance to avenge his loss to WBA/WBO super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux in 2014, then he’s going to need to agree to a rehydration limit of 135 lbs. Rigondeaux is willing to come up and fight Donaire in his own weight class at featherweight, but he doesn’t agree to be fighting a light welterweight Donaire with him weighing in excess of 135 lbs.

Rigondeaux is willing to let Donaire rehydrate from the featherweight limit of 126 all the way to the lightweight upper limit at 135. That’s 9 pounds that Rigondeaux is willing to give Donaire, but he doesn’t want to fight Donaire if he rehydrates into the light welterweight division at over 135. That’s too much weight for Rigondeaux, who fights right at 122 lbs. He doesn’t rehydrate into the 130s and definitely not in the 140s.

By Chris Williams: WBA/WBO super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (12-0, 8 KO’s) isn’t going to let Nonito Donaire (31-2, 21 KO’s) off the hook after hearing Donaire say on HBO last Saturday night that he wants to face Rigondeaux next. It made for a good sound bite at the time, but then Donaire’s promoter Bob Arum quickly revealed two days later that he has plans for Donaire to face WBA featherweight champion Nicholas Walters next for his title.

Arum didn’t mention Rigondeaux at all as a future opponent for Donaire, so it looks like Donaire was merely name dropping when he mentioned Rigondeaux’s name last Saturday night.

By Alon Calinao Dy: WBA/WBO super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (12-0, 8KOs) was not impressed by the performance of the Filipino boxer icon Nonito Donaire, Jr. the other night.

Rigondeaux is very confident he could pull it off once again, when a rematch with Donaire Jr. would happen early next year. At this moment, he is preparing for his upcoming tough bout against the former champion Joseph Agbeko at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey on Dec. 7, 2013.

Supposedly if he wins this fight, a rematch is inevitable between these two warriors. Rigondeaux is a real threat to Donaire and he would do anything to derail the career of the “Filipino Flash.”

By Chris Williams: Former WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (31-2, 20 KO’s) badly wants a rematch against WBA/WBO super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (12-0, 8 KO’s) next if his promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank will make that fight.

If not, then Donaire says he’s prepared to move up to featherweight to go after the vacant WBO featherweight title that was stripped from Donaire’s friend Mikey Garcia for failing to make weight last Friday in his weigh-in for his fight against Juan Manuel Lopez tonight.

By Alex Aviles: Last Saturday night Cuban Olympic gold medalist Guillermo Rigondeaux defeated Filipino star Nonito Donaire in convincing fashion. Post-fight there was talk among the boxing community about how the fight played out on an entertainment scale. Some fans considered it a good (albeit not great) fight. While some just considered it flat out boring.

The thoughts on both sides had their opinions based on a few points. Fans that considered it great base it on the appreciation of Rigo’s skill level and ability to take a fighter who is top 5 on a lot of fans P4P list and made it look easy. While on the flip-side the fans just didn’t see a toe-to-toe war (i.e Rios/Alvarado, Corrales/Castillo, Gatti/Ward etc.) thus immediately denouncing it as “boring”.

By Chris Williams: Nonito Donaire’s wife Rachel say that he could be back in the fall, but not at super bantamweight. He’ll be moving up to 126 to fight in the featherweight division following his 12 round unanimous decision loss to WBA super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux last Saturday night. Rachel told ESPN that he struggled badly to get down from the 130s during training camp for the fight. I have a feeling that 126 might not be a weight that he can make either without struggle.

Donaire may have to move up to 130 and campaign as a lightweight if he really wants to avoid having to battle with his weight because he’s a huge fighter that looks the same size as Adrien Broner.

By Chris Williams: Former WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (31-2, 20 KO’s) may have been beaten soundly by WBA super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (12-0, 8 KO’s) last Saturday night in New York, but at least Donaire can say he beat Rigondeaux in their stare downs in the week of the fight.

Donaire took great pride in out-staring Rigondeaux during the final press conference with him followed by the weigh-in the day before the fight. Indeed, I’ve never seen a fighter take as much satisfaction of winning a stare down as Donaire did because he was really blowing his own horn about it. I got the sense that he felt the fight was won after the stare down.

By Chris Williams: Kevin Cunningham, the trainer for IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander, was mesmerized by the incredibly impressive performance by WBA super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (12-0, 8 KO’s) last Saturday night in him defeating the heavily hyped WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (31-2, 20 KO’s) and making him look like a rank amateur in beating him by what should have been a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision.

In particular, Cunningham was impressive with the way that Rigondeaux completely shut down Donaire’s powerful left hook that he’d used to knockout many of his previous opponents.

Rigondeaux was able to take away Donaire’s left hook completely. The only time he did land it was when he shoved Rigondeaux in the 10th and hit him when he wasn’t ready.