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The latest boxing top stories and breaking news

Nonito Donaire is Bailed out by his Power in Texas

donaire9In 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.

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Nonito Donaire proves his mettle in stopping Vic Darchinyan…again

donaire8Although 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.

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Demetrius “Boo Boo” Andrade: And the new…

andrade67If anyone asked the newly crowned WBO Junior Middleweight Champion how he envisioned the opening stanza of his first major title opportunity playing out prior to Saturday night‘s match-up with Vanes Martirosyan, “getting floored” would have been the furthest scenario from the former Olympian’s mind.

Although no fighter wants to overcome the adversity of getting caught by a sneaky left hand in the first round, it was the best thing that could have happened to the crafty southpaw.

In the outset of the highly anticipated contest, the fighter more affectionately known as “Boo Boo” seemed to be loading up on shots, while throwing just one punch at a time. After falling out of position while anxiously trying to land hard leather on Martirosyan’s chin, the Armenian-born fighter countered with a perfectly timed left hand that dropped Andrade.

“He caught me early, but I stayed focused,” admitted the 25 year old title holder. “I started using the jab from that point forward and began to pick him apart.”

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

donaire1As 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.

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Nonito Donaire vs. Vic Darchinyan II: Revisionist historian

_MG_9679On July 7th, 2007, a scarcely known Filipino fighter named Nonito Donaire challenged the consensus regarded “Lord of the Flies”, Vic Darchinyan, for his IBF 112 pound title, and defeated the heavily favored champion with one swift left hook in the fifth round of their scheduled twelve round contest.

Today, it’s hard not to recognize the ripple effect of that impactful punch. Both fighters ended up going in two different directions professionally as a result of that significant blow to the chin of the formerly undefeated and highly regarded champion.

Since that fateful day, Nonito Donaire has gone on to compete in many lucrative bouts on the biggest stage of boxing, picking up three more division world titles and becoming one of the more highly regarded fighters in the entire sport.

In contrast, the “Raging Bull” from Armenia has garnered a respectable record of 11-4-1 with six knock-outs since the initial bout with the “Filipino Flash”, but has fallen short of most initial observations as one of the most feared pound for pound punchers in the entire sport, circa 2007.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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Latest Prizefighter tournament line-up complete: James Toney enjoys star status

IMG_47921Fight fans can expect an interesting, hopefully exciting, latest instalment of the popular “Prizefighter” tournament on November 14th. Set to go out, as usual, live on Sky Sports, the latest tournament is another international heavyweights edition, with a Team USA Vs. Team UK element added for further intrigue.

The full eight-man line-up has been confirmed by Matchroom Sports as follows:

James Toney (USA)
Jason Gavern (USA)
Brian Minto (USA)
Damian “Bolo” Wills (USA) – (stepping in for Sherman “Tank” Williams, who pulled out for some reason)

Larry Olubamiwo (UK)
Michael Sprott (UK) – (stepping in for an injured Sam Sexton)
Matt Legg (UK)
Tom Little (UK)

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Team Abdusalamov Establishing Trust for Their Injured Fighter and Family

abduslamov6Sampson Lewkowicz, promoter of hospitalized Russian heavyweight Magomed “Mago” Abdusalamov, along with promoters Leon Margules and Lou DiBella, and with help and support of others in the industry, are establishing a fund and to donate and raise funds to help alleviate the financial burden the unfortunate brain injury Abdusalamov suffered Saturday night has placed on him and his family.

32-year-old Abdusalamov had to have emergency surgery to remove a blood clot, and part of his skull had to be removed to reduce swelling, following his brutal 10-round war against Mike Perez at The Theater at Madison Square Garden, on Saturday, November 2. The fight was also broadcast worldwide on HBO.

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Left-Hook Lounge: How Good is “GGG”?, Is Rios “Afraid” of Pacquiao?, & is Mike Perez a Heavyweight Threat?

perez784H. Barlow (Dallas, TX): Count me to the list of supporters behind GGG! I think the guy is amazing and I don’t see anyone at 160 or 168 who can stop him. Who do you think would give him the “most” trouble between 154 and 168?

Vivek W. (ESB): Before I get into GGG’s performance, I’d like to start by saying great effort by Curtis Stevens. I thought Stevens performed very well, although he hindered himself by only pressing in spurts. Easy to say from my living room couch, but the reality is that when he did move more and let his hands go, I thought he made the fight very interesting. He couldn’t sustain that effort, and most of that has to be credited to GGG. When you analyze GGG closer, you have to give him great absolute credit. One of the things that gave Curtis Stevens a problem all night was Golovkin’s ability to cut off the ring.

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