Two big fights, one big blowout, one big upset
SONAHR: October 18, 2014 – Two of boxing?s biggest names ? middleweight Gennady ?GGG? Golovkin and featherweight Nonito Donaire ? climbed into the ring on Saturday to defend their WBA titles against challengers they were expected to dominate. Only one of the two met that expectation. The other went down to a shocking defeat.
Golovkin was the one who came through. His opponent, perennial contender Marco Antonio Rubio, had no chance from the moment he stepped on the scale at the weigh-in. The reason for that was that Rubio, who is a veteran and should have shown more professionalism, could not make the 160-pound weight limit. Therefore, even if he did somehow manage to pull off an upset victory, he would not have taken Golovkin?s title.
As it turned out, Rubio?s evening ended in the second round. Actually, it would not have mattered if Rubio had tipped the scales as a heavyweight. GGG would have demolished him anyway.
Rubio is a cut above the journeyman level, but also a cut below world class, and many, many cuts below the level of a Golovkin. The only reason he even received a shot at GGG is that promoters have been unable to put together more attractive matches for Golovkin against the likes of fellow belt-holders Peter Quillin and Miguel Cotto.
Golovkin?s blessing and curse is that he?s too good for his own good, which means that only the biggest purses will lure other high-quality fighters into the ring with him. We may never get to see how well he performs under adversity, simply because no one seems to be able to present him with any problems. In the near future, his most dangerous foes will be Father Time and Kid Complacency.
The other big fight saw Nonito Donaire, who was the consensus Fighter of the Year for 2011, get brutalized in six rounds by unheralded Jamaican Nicholas Walters. The fight was another of those WBA folderols involving a specious showdown between that august sanctioning body?s ?super? and ?regular? champions. In this case Donaire was the ?super? champion while the undefeated Walters had to be content with a mere ?regular? title belt.
Even though Walters is a puncher, with 20 of his 24 wins going into the fight coming via the quick route, conventional ring wisdom held that Donaire possessed too many overall skills ? including punching power ? to be fazed by a one-dimensional slugger. As it turned out, Walters fazed Donaire big-time, handing him a potentially career-ending beatdown. The Jamaican deserves full credit for his triumph. It must be said, however, that Donaire has not been the same fighter since his one-sided loss to Cuban wonder Guillermo Rigondeaux more than two years ago.
Still, before Saturday even a lesser version of Donaire appeared to be too much for most fighters in his division. He wasn?t too much for Walters, though. Now the new champion can look forward to lucrative matchups against fellow featherweight standouts Jhonny Gonzalez, Abner Mares and Vasyl Lomachenko.
As for Donaire, he should seriously consider hanging up his gloves. True, his Filipino compatriot Manny Pacquiao came back from a devastating 2012 knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez. But that was a one-punch shocker, not the grueling ordeal Walters inflicted on Donaire. Despite that decisive loss, though, Donaire is still a Hall of Fame-worthy fighter. Even so, he needs to think long and hard about continuing his career.
