By Paul Strauss: The Nonito Donaire versus Hernan Marquez fight started out a little bit slow, but it was surprising how quickly the fans at Coliseo Jose Miquel Agrelot, Hato Rey, PR, started grumbling. It wasn’t two minutes into round one before fans let the fighters know they wanted more action. Apparently they were chomping at the bit for their all action hero JuanMa.
Donaire was making things more difficult than they should have been, because he was determined to prove he could fight effectively from the southpaw stance. He feels he can generate more power from the lefty stance, but he would be hard pressed to convince tonight’s ShoBox fans of that opinion. He kept trying to make his point through the first four rounds, and as a result was getting shaded on points by the smaller Hernan Marquez..
At times Nonito would give fans a glimpse of why he is nicknamed the Filipino Flash. He would show off his superior reflexes, head movement and power. However, too often he would get caught bending down and leaning in toward the shorter Marquez. Marquez took advantage by landing some good right hooks and straight lefts. When Donaire punched back, Marquez avoided any real damage with a pretty tight defense. All that changed dramatically in the fifth round when the Nonito became the Filipino Flash full time from the orthodox stance. Almost immediately he started landing hard shots. His left jab and left hook started getting through Hernan’s guard with regularity. Hernan was depending too much on trying to block punches, and failed to move his head enough. Nonito soon had Marquez on the canvas, and then again for a second time in the round. It looked like the fight might soon be over.
However, Marquez proved he has a generous amount of fighting spirit. He weathered the storm, helping himself out with some unorthodox type MMA take down moves. But, his efforts went for naught. By this time, Nonito was landing more left hooks and uppercuts. Once the Flash was back in his usual right handed stance, he started landing more counter left hooks and uppercuts. He probably could have taken Marquez out in the fifth if he pressed things, but he backed off a bit and let Marquez recover his senses and get his legs backt. Nonaire appeared to want he work. In the eighth round, he landed another beautiful left hook. Marquez came back with his own straight left, which missed. Marquez then cocked his right to throw a hook and started his body shifting forward. However, before he could release the right hook, Nonito beat him to the punch with a crunching left uppercut. Marquez moved right into it, and once again found himself on the canvas. He started to get up at the count of five, but stumbled back down, and then started to rise again. By this time, Marquez’ corner was imploring the Referee Roberto Ramirez to stop the fight, which was done. The corner wisely knew Marquez took too much punishment from the fifth round on, and since Hernan is only 21 years old, he has lots of potential left. There was no need for him to take an unnecessary beating.
In the post fight interview, Nonito admitted that he was having trouble from the southpaw stance, but promised in the future that he would demonstrate his ability to fight like Marvin Hagler and Sweet Pea from that side. Most fans probably wonder why bother when he fights so well from the righty stance? He wants to have a rematch with Vic Darchinyan, but he told Jim Gray that Darchinyan doesn’t want to make the fight. Consequently, he hopes a fight can be made with Fernando Montiel. The official time of this TKO was 2:59 of the eighth round.
In the main event, Juan Manuel Lopez caused his fans hearts to skip a beat. In his usual attack and destroy type of offense, he had Bernabe Concepcion down with the first straight left that he landed. Soon he had him down again, and he closed in for the kill. He was raining punches on Concepcion from all angles. He got careless and left himself open after missing a right hook. Concepcion was hurt but still dangerous, and he managed to get under the right hook and come up with his own left hook. His punch crashed against the right side of JuanMa’s face. The punch put him down, but he quickly dusted himself off and got up, only to get hit again. This time it was with a pretty good right hand. Fortunately for JuanMa the round ended at about that point, so he had a minute to regroup.
In the second round, he quickly had Concepcion down again as the result of another straight left. Seconds later he caught Concepcion with a right hook that hurt Concepcion badly. Bernabe didn’t go down, but he was staggering around, hands down and vulnerable. This time it was obvious Concerpcion wasn’t going to be coming back with any big shot like he did in the first round. Another onslaught put him down again. This time the little Real Deal seemed to be a bit of an impostor. The fight ended as a TKO victory for JuanMa at 2:37 of the second round. He once again demonstrated why his fans love him so much. He is truly an exciting fighter, who is more than willing to put himself in harms way in order to land his own shots.
He definitely will be going into harms way come Sept when he is scheduled to fight Rafael Marquez. JuanMa is supremely confident in his own power, and rightly so, but he also respects Rafael as a great fighter. He undoubtedly will be a bit more cautious in Sept. than he was tonight. It should be a great fight.
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