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.
Oddly enough, the fight was allowed to continue long enough for it to be official with it going 4 rounds. The referee then halted the fight after the 4th round after Donaire complained he couldn’t see out of his left eye due to the blood. The final judges’ scores were 40-36, 40-36, and 40-36,
Donaire came out on fire in the 4th round, as if he knew this was going to be his last round of the fight. He nailed Vetyeka with a left hand to the head in the round. He also hit him with a hard right hand that seemed to briefly bother Vetyeka. However, it was Vetyeka who seemed to be getting the better of Donaire as the round ended, and he looked to be the smoother and stronger fighter of the two.
With the referee incorrectly ruling the cut being caused by a head clash rather than a punch, it took Vetyeka’s victory away from him because he would have won the fight had the cut had been caused by a punch, which is what it was caused by. It’s a pretty sad way for a champion to lose his title on a referee’s mistake but that’s what happened tonight.
To his credit, Donaire said he’d give Vetyeka a rematch, but that remains to be seen. Donaire’s promoter Bob Arum is the one that matches him up, and it’s very likely we could see Donaire fighting WBA featherweight champion Nicholas Walters next rather than Vetyeka. In fact, I’d be very surprised if Donaire ever fights Vetyeka again.
***
Other boxing results on the card:
Nicholas Walters KO 5 Vic Darchinyan
Chris Avalos TKO 8 Yasutaka Ishimoto
Evgeny Gradovich UD 12 Alexander Miskirtchian
Rex Tso UD 10 Ratchasak Kokietgym
Ik Yang TKO 1 Geisler AP
Esquiva Falcao UD 6 Eun-Chang Lee
Kuok Kun Ng KO 1 Muhammad Imam
