By Gabe Panini
What HBO and promoter Bob Arum hyped up as the best match up in boxing for 2013 didn’t give the fans a lot of entertainment but did clear up the question of who is the best guy in the super-bantamweight division. We got an answer but we sure didn’t get the answer the way we would have liked. It would have been nice to get a KO victory similar to the one that Juan Manuel Marquez had over Manny Pacquiao, but not every fight that is build up and hyped this much will live up to the promotion, this is why as boxing fans all we can ask for is that we get the best fighting the best and if it turns out to be an exciting classic with back and forth action or a KO of the year type candidate it’s just a plus.
It was evident from the start of the fight that Nonito Donaire was looking for that one big left hand punch to land, and that was the wrong game plan to use against someone as slick and crafty is the Cuban Jackal Guillermo Rigondeaux who avoided almost every single shot except for a knockdown in the tenth round. The Cuban specialist continued to counter punch the Filipino Flash and was having such an easy night that it looked as if Rigondeaux was fighting in the Matrix. Donaire was confused and lost by his opponent, and seemed to have underestimated him coming into the fight. Analysts felt this was a 50-50 fight but gave the slight edge to Donaire because they felt he had the size advantage and the professional experience while Rigondeaux only had 11 fights under his belt but over 300 amateur bouts. Guillermo Rigondeaux also proved to the doubters who said that he couldn’t take a punch that he could take a punch from a man who was considered one of the hardest punchers in boxing.
Guillermo Rigondeaux
Where do the fighters go from here? Well for Guillermo Rigondeaux having just unified the WBA/WBO super-bantamweight titles he can fight the other champions in the division or move up to 126 pounds, as for Nonito Donaire, he already said in his post fight interview he had trouble making the weight and will fight his next bout at 126 pounds.