By Paul Strauss: The excitement was at a fever pitch tonight at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. Fans everywhere expected lots of fireworks, and although Nonito Donaire was the favorite, boxing fans felt Fernando Montiel’s experience might prove to be the deciding factor. Montiel had already proved that he could overcome adversity and win in big fights. Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire hadn’t yet been really hurt in his career, so there was a bit of a question mark about how he would react if tagged by a hard puncher like Montiel.
When Lupe Contreras finished the intro’s people settled into their seats, and the two combatants started circling each other. The size advantage of Donaire was readily apparent, but what quickly became even more apparent was his speed. He didn’t need more than a few seconds before he was able demonstrate it to everyone, most of all to Montiel. He would dart in and land a good left hook to the body. Tthen quickly darted back out of range, so Montiel was unable to respond with a counter. A few seconds later, he managed the same quick move, but this time the left hook landed to the head.
Shortly thereafter you could see a bit of frustration showing up on Montiel’s face. It was as though you could read his mind and see that he was wondering, “How the hell am I going to time this speed demon in front of me!” Donaire continued to dart in and out with lightning fast shots, but nothing landed cleanly. More revealing though, Montiel wasn’t able to land anything..
Early in the second round Donaire landed a good right hand, made possible because Montiel moved straight back. During one quick exchange, Montiel did manage to sneak in a short left uppercut, but it didn’t hurt Donaire at all. Montiel seemed to be getting into a bit of a rhythm and improve his confidence. He then moved in with a straight right hand that landed. But, it didn’t land solid because Donaire “rolled” with it, rotating his upper body at the same time to uncork a beautiful counter left hook.
Montiel never saw the punch which crashed against the right side of his head, distorting his features and short circuiting his brain waves. Donaire followed through beautifully with the punch, and as Montiel body sank to the canvas, Donaire tried to fire off a right hand too, but he was turned so much from the left hook, that his attempted right uppercut bounced off of his own right thigh and then barely contacted Montiel.
When Montiel hit the canvas, his arms flailed above his head, and his legs twitched uncontrollably.
He did manage to beat the count, and Referee Russell Mora allowed him to continue. But, when Mora saw Donaire move in and tag Montiel with the first two punches he threw, he stepped in and called a halt to the action.
With one great shot, Nonito Donaire captured two titles. He now is WBC and WBO bantamweight champion. HBO announcer Max Kellerman bestowed number two P4P fighter on him as well, and there probably aren’t many who would disagree with that acknowledgement considering Floyd Meaweather, Jr. is inactive. In the post fight interview, Donaire was very gracious and gave credit to Manny Pacquiao for making it possible for him as a Filipino-American to have the opportunities he’s enjoyed, and he added that it doesn’t mind a bit to be number two behind Manny.
As far as the future is concerned, he would like to be the undisputed champion, and if that doesn’t work out, then he would consider moving up in weight. As far as the knockout punch was considered, he agreed that it was his plan. He explained that he purposely let Montiel get started a bit, because he was timing his shot. A few good fighters will try a similar move, but they generally throw the counter left hook to the open stretched out body (liver) after rolling with the right hand. But, Nonitio proved going to the head works pretty well too.
The undercard rematch between Jesus Soto-Karass and Mike Jones was a bloody affair. In the third round Karass suffered cuts over both eyes. The cut over the left eye was due to a head butt, but the one over the right eye was the result of a punch. Karass is all heart, but Jones was just too fast and sharp. He also moves well, except on those occasions when he gets his feet crossed. At those times, he is taking away his ability to throw a right hand. It’s probably too late in his career to break him of that bad habit.
However, he is so athletic and fast that he gets away with the mistake. One of the turning points in the way the fight went was when Jones started to land some really hard shots to the body of Karass. The punches really slowed down the way Karass pressed forward. Too often he just didn’t have the gas to unleash an attack the way he wanted to.
But, he never stopped trying, even though the ringside physcian and Referee Kenny Bayless thought seriously about stopping the action because of the blood flow into his eyes. Joe Goosen was working his corner, and it was obvious that he thought seriously about stopping the fight too. After the tenth round, he told Karass that he “….didn’t want to see what I saw last round.” In other words, he didn’t want to see a repeat of the beating that Karass was absorbing.
Karass fought on and had his moments, but the judges didn’t give Karass more than a few rounds for his trouble. Mike moves on and keeps his undefeated record in the welterweight division and has the WBC, WBO, NABO and NABA titles to his credit.