World Boxing Association (WBA) featherweight champions NONITO “The Filipino Flash” DONAIRE and NICHOLAS “The Axe Man” WALTERS collide This Saturday! in a WBA featherweight title unification showdown at a sold-out StubHub! Center in Carson, Calif.
Trainer Abel Sanchez says his fighter WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (30-, 27 KOs) is 100 percent ready for his clash next month against WBC interim middleweight champion Marco Antonio Rubio (59-6-1, 51 KOs) on their “Mexican Style” fight card on October 18th at the StubHub Center, in Carson, California, USA.
Sanchez believes that the hard hitting Rubio will be coming to slug it out with Golovkin, and that’s what he’s hoping for. Sanchez wants to see the two of them slugging it out in front of the boxing fans at the StubHub Center and the fans that tune in to watch the fight on HBO Championship Boxing.
WBA Super World featherweight champion Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire (33-2, 21 KOs) has decided not to give former WBA champ Simpiwe Vetyeka an immediate rematch like he was talking about after having beaten him by a 5th round technical decision last May to win the WBA title.
Donaire instead will be fighting WBA regular featherweight champ Nicholas “Axe Man” Walters (24-0, 20 KOs) on October 18th at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. The Donaire-Walters fight will be the televised co-feature on HBO on the undercard of the Gennady Golovkin vs. Marco Antonio Rubio fight card.
In what appeared to be a robbery tonight, Nonito Donaire (33-2, 21 KO’s) was given a 4 round technical decision victory over WBA Super World featherweight champion Simpiwe Vetyeka (26-3, 16 KO’s) in a fight where the victory should have been given to Vetyeka at the Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort, Macao, Macao S.A.R., China.
Donaire was cut over the left eye at the end of the 1st round from what the referee ruled was a clash of heads. But in looking at the replay of where the cut occurred there was no head clash where contact was made by Donaire’s left eye. Instead it was a right hand from Vetyeka that hit Donaire on his left eye, causing him to go down on all fours on the canvas.
A press conference in Manila on Tuesday announced the details of Featherweight Fury – a championship event with three featherweight world title main event fights to be hosted by The Venetian® Macao on Saturday, May 31 at the Cotai Arena.
The world-class event is headlined by three spectacular featherweight title matchups: four-division world champion and 2012 Fighter of the Year NONITO “The Filipino Flash” DONAIRE will challenge World Boxing Association (WBA) undisputed featherweight world champion SIMPIWE “V12” VETYEKA; undefeated WBA world featherweight champion NICHOLAS “The Axe Man” WALTERS will defend his title against two-division world champion VIC “Raging Bull” DARCHINYAN; and undefeated International Boxing Federation (IBF) champion EVGENY “The Mexican Russian” GRADOVICH, making his third consecutive featherweight title defense at the Cotai Arena, will be battling No. 1 contender ALEXANDER MISKIRTCHIAN.
Hannali R. (Reseda, CA): I thought Nonito Donaire proved that he still belongs at the top of the sport with his victory over Darchinyan. How did you rate his performance? And what do you think about Rigondeaux’s bizarre request to stage a rematch in Miami?
Vivek W. (ESB): To be quite frank, I see this purely the opposite of anyone who feels this effort either “places him” or “keeps him” at the top of the sport. What I saw in Donaire was a talent who appeared totally unsure of himself, and very limited – in terms of self confidence. I’m a long time proponent of pure fundamental skills, and although I’d stop short of calling Donaire a “hype job”, when I think of the accolades received that labeled him “Fighter of the Year” and beyond, I’d be the first to say he never really had the level of talent to support such claims. Donaire’s speed and power alone made him a phenom. Beyond those two attributes, he has very little left in the tool kit and we were reminded of this again, last Saturday night.
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.
Although four division world champion Nonito Donaire had tasted defeat for the first time in twelve years when last seen in the ring, the Filipino Flash remained one of boxing’s premier fighters and an HBO attraction going into Saturday night‘s Featherweight grudge match with longtime nemesis Vic Darchinyan.
Since the disappointing loss to two time Olympic gold medal winner and Super Bantamweight Champion Guillermo Rigondeaux on April 13th, 2013, Nonito welcomed his first born son, Jarel Donaire, into this world and reconciled with his father, trainer, and mentor, Nonito Donaire Sr.
With the time away from the squared circle, the 30 year old fighter felt genuinely excited about the sport once again, and wanted to use the return bout with “The Raging Bull” as a gauge in which to measure his current level of boxing proficiency.
While most fight fans and boxing writers may not be able to determine his stature among the elite of boxing with last night’s performance, Nonito’s heart, grit, and physical durability was off the charts inspirational. Despite being a heavy favorite leading into the long awaited rematch, the Armenian born fighter gave Donaire Jr. everything he could handle in the squared circle.
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.
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.