By Jeff Sorby: WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire’s trainer Robert Garcia doesn’t see WBA super bantamweight champion Rigondeaux as doing any better than Fernando Montiel did against Donaire. Donaire destroyed Montiel in two rounds a couple a years ago in a fight that many boxing fans thought it would be a competitive match-up going into the fight.
Garcia said to Radio Raheem “I think it’s [Donaire vs. Rigondeaux] a great fight on paper, but I don’t think it’s going to be his toughest, no. We thought Montiel was going to be the toughest, but look what happened. So we could have the same thing again. He’ll end it one or two rounds…I have no doubts that Nonito will win convincingly.”
Anything is possible, but Garcia shouldn’t make the mistake of believing that just because Donaire had an easy time with one fighter that he’ll have an easy time with all fighters. Eventually Donaire is going to meet his match, and it could be on April 13th when Donaire and Rigondeaux face each other at the Radio City Music Hall, in New York, New York, USA.
There’s no question that the bigger and heavier Donaire has an advantage over Rigondeaux. Donaire is like a lightweight in size fighting at super bantamweight and that gives him a huge advantage over the smaller guys that are typically 5’4” and weight right around the 122 lb. limit.
The 5’7” Donaire is a lot taller than his opponents, and he’s heavier and that definitely helps him. Donaire needs to try and resist the urge to move up in weight to featherweight and above because his advantages will slowly disappear once he moves out of the super bantamweight division.
Rigondeaux isn’t the easiest guy to hit when he’s thinking defense. If Donaire hits him hard with a shot, Rigondeaux is going to make adjustments to what Donaire is doing and try to shut down that punch angle. If it’s a left hook that Rigondeaux gets hit with, then he’ll do what Omar Narvaez did by keeping his guard up high to block the shot.
Narvaez took Donaire’s left hook completely away from him, and that left Donaire blaming Narvaez after the fight for being boring. Donaire should have been congratulating the guy for taking away his best weapon. If Rigondeaux can do the same thing that Narvaez did, then this fight could be interesting because Rigondeaux has the power, speed and counter punching ability to hurt Donaire.