Nonito Donaire is Bailed out by his Power in Texas

11/11/201311/10/2013 George Goddiess

donaire9 In boxing six years can be an eternity for the arc of a career and the landscape of different levels of class. Six years and fourteen pounds ago Nonito Donaire was not the pound for pound fighter he is today but a real unknown. His abilities and progress as a fighter had not shown anything indicating what was to come for the sensational fighter has ultimately become. He was heading into his first world title bout all the down at flyweight against an emerging star in Vic Darchinyan.

A very cocky Darchinyan was making his seventh defense of his International Boxing Federation championship and had been on an impressive run knocking out all in his path minus one exception. That exception was Glenn Donaire, the older brother of Nonito, who lost a technical decision after an accidental foul resulted in a broken jaw. Heading into this fight it did not appear that Nonito was going to bring anything into this fight that was going to stop the blossoming Darchinyan from continuing his drive toward the larger stardom of boxing as he was hyped to be capable of.

Andrade beats Martirosyan; Donaire defeats Darchinyan; Mikey Garcia crushes Martinez

11/10/201311/10/2013 Paul Strauss

donairee7 Saturday night at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, TX started slow with an ugly affair between two unbeatens, Demetrius “Boo Boo” Andrade (20-0, 13 KO’s) and Vanes “Nightmare” Martirosyan (33-0-1,21 KO;s). After witnessing their ugly affair, you wondered how they stayed undefeated for so long. Vanes is trained by Freddie Roach, he was supposed to be the aggressor. Apparently no one told him that. His corner tried to, but their pleading between rounds fell on deaf ears. Viewers wanted him to do more, to do something to stop Andrade’s clumsy attempts at controlling the action.

Early on there was hope as the “Nightmare” surprised “Boo Boo” with a counter left hook that left him on the seat of his pants. After that the unpleasantness set in and there was only one boo, and that was coming from the crowd. The crowd was justified. These two guys did their best to uglify their chances to capture the vacant WBO light middleweight title. How can anyone accurately describe the scene? How about trips, stumbles, wild misses, shoves, elbows, late hits, and an out of breath referee named Jon Schorle.

Donaire’s Left Hook: Save The Best For Last!

11/10/201311/10/2013 Alon Calinao Dy

donaire3 Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire came out victorious tonight against Vic “The Raging Bull” Darchinyan at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Many observers said that Darchinyan was leading on the score cards until the stoppage and Robert Garcia, Donaire’s trainer, encouraged his prodigy to throw some combinations. In the 9th round, the Filipino fighter listened to the advice from his corner and he hurt and caught Darchinyan with his deadly left hooks, which sent every boxer he faced, to go down. When Darchinyan went down and couldn’t recover anymore to a fast flurry of punches from Donaire, referee Laurence Cole halted the fight to save the defenseless boxer.

Garcia stops Martinez; Donaire TKOs Darchinyan in 9th; Andrade beats Martirosyan

11/10/201311/09/2013 Rob Smith

donaire1 As expected, Mikey Garcia (33-0, 28 KO’s) stopped WBO super featherweight champion Roman “Rocky” Martinez (27-2-2, 16 KO’s) in the 8th round on Saturday night at the American Bank Center, in Corpus Christi, Texas, USA. Garcia knocked Martinez down with a big left hook to the body in the 8th round. Martinez wanted to get up but he was too hurt to rise to his feet. The fight was then halted by referee Lawrence Cole 0:56 of the round.

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Nonito Donaire (32-2, 21 KO’s) looked like a shell of himself in having to go life and death to stop a way past his best Vic Darchinyan (39-6-1, 28 KO’s). Donaire caught Darchinyan with a left hand in the 9th to put him down. Donaire then loaded up with a series of single shots agaisnt a badly hurt Darchinhyan until referee Lawrence Cole stepped in and stopped the bout with Darchinyan still on his feet. The official time of the stoppage was 2:06.

Photos – Weigh-in: Garcia-Martinez, Donaire-Darchinyan, Martirosyan-Andrade

11/09/201311/08/2013 Steve Lopez

Boxing returns to the south this weekend in Corpus Christi, TX for another fall Top Rank tripleheader showdown on HBO Boxing After Dark.

Headlining the card is the WBO Super Featherweight title fight between Mikey Garcia and Roman “Rocky” Martinez. After losing his Featherweight title at the scales earlier this year, Garcia makes a move to the Super Featherweight division to challenge Martinez in another Mexico VS. Puerto Rico clash.

Co-headling the card is a rematch between Nonito Donaire and Vic Darchinyan. In 2007, Donaire derailed the Darchinyan express with a vicious left hook to end their first encounter via KO win for Donaire. Six years in the making, Darchinyan gets his chance at redemption. Having never fought at Featherweight, it will be interesting to see how Darchinyan’s chin holds up at the new weight. A heavy puncher himself, Darchinyan is oozing with confidence by ensuring a victory for himself and Armenia.

Robert Garcia: “Darchinyan Really Hates Nonito Donaire”

08/01/201411/08/2013 Vitali Shaposhnikov

Team Donaire are not taking Vic Darchinyan lightly, assuming that the bad blood between the two fighters makes Vic more dangerous than ever before. Nonito Donaire’s trainer Robert Garcia believes that finally getting the rematch that Darchinyan had wanted so badly for all these years, is likely to push Vic to new higher limits in preparing for this fight.

“He really hates Nonito. We got to be very well prepared and very careful for a dangerous fight. Darchinyan could be a very dangerous opponent because he has nothing to lose. And I’m sure he trained like nothing before, because he wants this rematch so bad. Now that he’s got it, he’s going to do anything possible to win the fight,” said Robert Garcia in a recent interview with Hustle Boss.

Donaire vs. Darchinyan 2 & Garcia vs. Martinez: A bridge to nowhere

11/08/2013 Chris Carlson

Normally when two elite fighters are co-featured on a card together you can expect the winners (favorites) to be matched up in a (super) fight of sorts at some point in the near future.

It’s a formula that’s been used to build or as Bob Arum would say “marinate”, certain fights that have been labeled by the fans as must see fights.

Usually the promoters put each fighter in a showcase type fight for future highlight replays that will be used as fuel to stoke the fire of a talked about fight.

Some fights never come to fruition due to the inner political issues of the business of boxing.

Donaire/Darchinyan Interview Transcript

11/07/201311/06/2013 Top Rank

We have a terrific card coming up this Saturday at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas, which will be televised Live on HBO® beginning at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT. The telecast will open up with the two top-rated contenders — both undefeated — in the junior middleweight division fighting for the vacant WBO title and coincidentally they are both former U.S. Olympians – Vanes “The Nightmare” Martirosyan taking on Demetrius “Boo Boo” Andrade; that will be followed by Nonito and Vic in their rematch; and the telecast will conclude with Roman “Rocky” Martinez defending his WBO junior lightweight title against former WBO featherweight champion, the undefeated Mikey Garcia. Robert Garcia will have his hands full Saturday night as he will be working the corners for both Donaire and Garcia.