In this weekends stand out fight we see Filipino born American based pound-for-pound fighter Nonito Donaire (31-1, 20) face off against against former Cuban amateur legend Guillermo Rigondeaux (11-0, 8) in a unification of the WBO and WBA titles and a bout to decide who truly is the top dog at Super Bantamweight.
Going in to the bout Rigondeaux is the betting under-dog despite having an amazing career as both an amateur and a professional. In fact as an amateur Rigondeaux's will go down as one of the all time greats. He fought around 400 amateur fights and was rumoured to have won 388 of them, which included numerous bouts in Olympics and World Amateur champions, in fact Rigondeaux claimed 2 Olympic gold medals and two World Amateur titles as he dominated the Bantamweight division in the unpaid ranks.
As a professional Rigondeaux has been fast tracked, partly due to his amateur credentials but also partly due to the fact he made his professional debut when he was 28 years old. The speed of Rigondeaux's rise to the top was amazing and within just 18 months of his debut he had already claimed the interim WBA Super Bantamweight title. After a solitary defense of the interim belt Rigondeaux claimed the "regular" title thanks to a victory over Rico Ramos and he has since defended his title twice.
Despite his stellar record and amazing skills Rigondeaux has numerous question marks over his durability as a professional. Although he has only been down once as a professional (thanks to Ricardo Cordoba) he has been rattled several times including in his last fight against the limited Robert Marroquin. It's fair to say that Donaire hit's as hard, if not harder, than both Cordoba and Marroquin but he's also not the sort of fighter who will let a hurt opponent recover with out applying some serious pressure.
Sure Rigondeaux can hurt fighters, especially with his body shots which are amongst the best in the sport right now but the big questions regarding his chin specifically are the big worries.
With Donaire we have an exceptional fighter. Sure the 30 year old lacks the amateur pedigree of Rigondeaux but his professional achievements speak for themselves. Not only is record excellent at 31-1 but he's also unbeaten in 30 bouts (losing only his second professional contest) spread over 12 years which have seen him claiming world titles at Flyweight, Super Flyweight, Bantamweight and Super Bantamweight. He has also been given accolades including "Fighter of the Year" as he's proven to be one of the sports premier fighters.
Over the past 6 years Donaire's record has spoke for it's self with victories over a real who's who of the sport including Vic Darchinyan, Moruti Mthalane, Hernan Marquez, Fernando Montiel, Omar Andres Narvaez, Wilfredo Vazquez Jr, Jeffrey Mathebula, Toshiaki Nishioka and Jorge Arce. It's little wonder that the "Filipino Flash" is so highly ranked, especially when you consider the manner of many of his victories which he has made look very easy.
Despite the fact that Donaire has scored some exceptional victories over top contenders other opponents have made Donaire look bad. For example Narvaez, Mthalane and Vazquez all frustrated Donaire despite losing. These men have shown that Donaire isn't a perfect fighter and where an opponent uses an intelligent defense they can annoy Donaire who appears to be a flat out counter puncher and struggles to force the action, this could certainly come in to play against Rigondeaux.
If Rigondeaux can frustrate Donaire with refusal to engage and his own counter punching and speed he does have a genuine chance of the upset here though he'll need to make sure Donaire can't tag him clean.
For me personally the key to this bout concerns who can be the most patient. I don't imagine this will be a classic but it should be a high speed chess match with both men looking for a gap for their sharp, technically beautiful shots. Neither man will be looking to open up too much but both will be looking to land. Whilst I think Rigondeaux will cope better with the boos that I expect we'll hear I just can't see him avoiding Donaire's power right through the bout and when he's hurt Donaire won't let im off the hook.
Prediction-Donaire TKO7
agreed, too much power for that weak chin
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