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Bantamweight: Former Waterloo Now Philippines' Glory Division (Third Part: Reenter Nonito Donaire) By Teodoro Medina Reynoso PhilBoxing.com Sat, 10 Jul 2021  Donaire (L) and Inoue battle in a fight of the year WBSS bantamweight final in 2019. It seems we are destined for ultimate fistic glory in the bantamweight despite our ongoing saga being pockmarked more by stories of futility and failure than success. For by mid 2018 when we seemed to have exhausted our best bets in the division with Marlon Tapales forcing to give up his WBO title due to weight problems and both Arthur Villanueva and Mark John Yap losing came quite unexpectedly two fighters who now are in the best position to give the Philippines an unprecedented high not only in the division but in its boxing annals. They are Nonito Donaire and Johnriel Casimero, two fighters with contrasting backgrounds, characters and philosophies in the professional fight sport but share something in common as far as achievements atop the ring is concerned: both are accomplished multi division world champions. NONITO DONAIRE JR. Donaire as mentioned earlier has had a memorable though abbreviated first stint and reign as unified WBC-WBO world bantamweight champion in 2012. His rise as an elite fighter was meteoric, beginning with his epic destruction of the feared, brash Vic Darchinyan in 2007. He was seemingly unstoppable after moving up to 122 lbs, winning three of the four major belts until he ran smack against a Cuban defensive master in Guillermo Rigondeaux in 2013. But even then, he challenged and willed himself to win another world title at featherweight (WBA) though his reign was cut very short by Jamaican 'Axeman' Nicholas Walters who gave him his first knockout loss in 2014. Still he persevered in the higher weights, winning and losing another world title at super bantamweight (WBO) versus Mexican Cesar Juarez and Diego Magdaleno in 2015-2016. But by April 2018, Donaire seemed to have reached the end of his career losing a fighting decision to UK's Carl Frampton for the vacant WBC featherweight title. His size advantage did not matter as Frampton proved to be stronger and more powerful than him at that level. Wisdom dawned upon Nonito that he was not meant for the higher weights and he would be better off moving back to the bantamweight. 2018-19 WBSS BANTAMWEIGHT TOURNAMENT That proved providential as by mid 2018, a super tournament was arranged in the bantamweight to crown the one true world unified champion in the division. With his name recall prominence Donaire was seeded as one of the competitors opposite then very popular WBA bantamweight super champion Ryan Burnett of the UK in one of the quarterfinal tournaments. The other quarter finals had WBO champion Zolani Tete, upcoming WBA regular titlist Naoya Inoue and IBF titlist Emmanuel Rodriguez in lead starring roles. The WBC having still no champion did not participate. In what was then considered as a major upset, Donaire forced Burnett to quit after four rounds with the UK corner citing accidental back injury suffered by Burnett as the reason. But Burnett did not cause that injury by himself as Nonito banged his body from the get go. Donaire thus won a second term as a world bantamweight titlist. Tete, Inoue and Rodriguez also won their part of the tournament thereby keeping up with the semifinal schedule that would pit Donaire against Tete and Inoue against Rodriguez. By the middle of 2019, Donaire was arranged to fight Tete but the South African allegedly suffered injury in training and pulled out from the tournament and had to be replaced by American Stephon Young. Nonito won his semifinal assignment and kept his WBA bantamweight super belt by highlight reel knockout over Young. Meanwhile, Inoue also won his semifinals by brutally knocking out Rodriguez and winning his IBF title. While the World Boxing Super Series tournament in the bantamweight was going on, the WBC finally filled its vacant championship with France's Nordine Oubaali winning it over another American Raushee Warren. Oubaali afterwards defeated Filipino Arthur Villanueva in his first title defense. The stage was therefore set for the WBSS bantamweight finals between Donaire and Inoue in Saitama, Japan on November 7, 2019. And as aperitif, Oubaali was to defend his WBC crown against Naoya's younger brother, Takuma Inoue who had earlier gained the right by beating another Filipino Mark John Yap in an OPBF bantamweight title fight which doubled as WBC title eliminator. Inoue rallied in the championship rounds, scoring a body shot knockdown in the penultimate round to win by close, hard fought unanimous decision over Donaire to win the WBSS bantamweight finals becoming fully a unified WBA-IBF world champion as well as Ring Magazine recognition as lineal world champion. In the supporting bout, Oubaali strengthened his position as possible next title opponent for Inoue by easily outpointing Naoya's brother, Takuma to retain his WBC crown. An Inoue versus Oubaali would have been natural. But the WBC was so impressed by Donaire's showing against Inoue that it installed Nonito as mandatory challenger to Oubaali with the plan of the winner facing Inoue in the near future. Meanwhile, the WBSS tournament just achieved partial success with the injury to and withdrawal of WBO's Zolani Tete who held one of the major belts. As fate would have it, Tete totally crashed out of contention to the battle for ultimate supremacy in the division, losing in what was considered as among that year's biggest pro boxing upsets. On November 30, 2019, in what many had expected as a routine title defense held in his adopted second home, UK, Tete faced a heavy underdog Filipino challenger who short-circuited his brain with a well placed blow to the temple. His name: Johnriel Casimero. To be continued... The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.  |
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