On 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.
While I was sure that Mayweather Jr. vs. Pacquiao was nothing but a fantasy at this point in time, it seems as though Freddie Roach hasn’t yet let go of the possibility of the fight happening in the near future:
Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer recently offered his opinion that Amir Khan was faster than Floyd “Money” Mayweather, Jr. Are you buying it? Inside the ring, the truth is that there are two kinds of speed. One is measured and calculating. The other is just plain jittery speed. 
WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward (26-0, 14 KO’s) and his promoter Dan Goosen are both open to a fight against IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (54-6-2, 32 KO’s) if he’s game. 
Miguel Cotto (31-4, 31 KO’s) may have lost two out of his last three fights but that’s not stopping Golden Boy Promotions from offering him huge money to fight their young star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-1-1, 30 KO’s). Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer met with Cotto this week at Golden Boy headquarters and offered Cotto more than $10 million for him to fight the 23-year-old Canelo. Schaefer also mentioned a possible fight for Cotto against Floyd Mayweather Jr. if he agrees to the Canelo fight. 
Fight 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.