I’ll never forget April 13, 2013 and I’ll always remember October 18, 2014. It is for two different reasons that I’ll do this – but both are essentially expiration dates for Nonito Donaire.
The first date was supposed to be an unforgettable day of romance for me and my significant other, only to be capped by what I thought was going to be a sensational fight between Nonito Donaire and Guillermo Rigondeaux at New York City’s world famous Radio City Music Hall.
We got all dressed up for “Phantom of The Opera” on Broadway, then headed over to Brooklyn for a fun dinner at “Pies n Thighs” courtesy of Guy Fieri’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives”. Both lived up to the hype and even surpassed it, so we had every reason to believe Donaire vs. Rigondeaux would do the same.
I struck up a conversation with a fight fan and his wife at ringside – who then pulled up my article “Superfight: Nonito Donaire vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux” online. That article stayed on his screen the whole way through the fight, and the looks on our faces (and the ones in the crowd) resembled ones you’d wear if someone just kept deliberately farting in front of you.
The looks on faces the other night as Nicholas Walters (and I’ll use Nonito’s words here) beat the sh*t out of Donaire, were similar to those I saw when the great Julio Cesar Chavez was being mauled by Kostya Tsyzu. Ringside cameras focused in on Donaire’s beautiful wife Rachel, whose eyes were tearless and resigned to fate.
It was a reminder that there are no sacred cows in life – or in Boxing.
But going back to the night of April 13th in 2013, I remember feeling the victory was a defeat of sorts for Rigondeaux, who angered Top Rank and HBO with a dreadfully effective clinic over Donaire via UD. That said, Walters defeat of Donaire was so thoroughly complete, that it has to be considered a major victory for HBO, Top Rank, and Rigondeaux.
For if the Cuban is as great as he thinks he is (and just might be), then the right thing to do – right now – is to make Rigondeaux vs. Walters happen as fast as yesterday.
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THE RISE OF “THE AXEMAN”
<<<<<<<-----let's rewind back to October 18th and my prediction on Donaire/Walters about an hour before the fight.
Donaire vs. Walters
Donaire has either been looking for a missing key that’s right in front of him or he doesn’t realize that the locks have been changed. I think he’ll both find what he’s been missing and come to his senses at the same time. Fighting an opponent worthy of bringing out your best has a tendency to do that.
Nicholas Walters has never been in the rough section of the ring’s neighborhood despite his rugged Montego Bay origins, but he’ll start very fast. I think he’s dominating Donaire to an extent until he absorbs something that changes his approach- and him. With his career hanging in the balance, along with a fight with looming star Vasyl Lomachenko in the works, I expect Donaire to get off the canvas to use his experience to weather the assault of Walters and deliver his own. This fight will have elements of ebb ‘n flow similar to what we saw years ago in Oscar De La Hoya vs. Fernando Vargas.
Though Walters is younger and more powerful, he’s not as nuanced as Donaire, and that’ll be his undoing. Showing the resolve and grit of the greatness that’s still in him (I think…), a not-so-done Nonito Donaire will walk through hell to stop Nicholas Walters via 10th round TKO. I don’t know that it’ll get him back to the big stage in New York, but it should be a night to remember.
JGT
If you really read that and what I was really doing there; I was more or less “hoping” Donaire had enough greatness left in him, while not really believing the rise of Walters was for real.
You’re supposed to have journalistic integrity at all times, but that’s like saying a politician is supposed to be honest at all times.
We’re not supposed to be naive either.
Anyone who reads what I write knows that I’m a huge fan of Manny Pacquiao, but that doesn’t mean I think he’s invincible. He’s not. In fact, I’ve seen enough from Mikey Garcia to believe he’d not only beat Pacquiao, but he’d stop him.
I hadn’t really seen enough from Nicholas Walters to believe that he’d do everything needed to beat Donaire. I saw a lot of Donaire’s preparation for Walters and spent no time observing the Jamaican at all. I saw enough from the Darchinyan fight and the one with Daulis Prescott to know he had the potential to be special, but I still had doubts.
I needed to see what kind of Donaire he was getting the other night. I needed to see if there was a pilot light and smell some gas inside of Donaire in camp – and I did. I felt Walter’s would make him explode. He did. And that’s why I know I’m looking at a future all-time great in “The Axeman”.
You really want to know what we’re getting in Walter’s? Take a seat.
Folks this is a harder hitting, prime hybrid of Livingston Bramble and Ike Quartey on acid. An absolute superstar was born the other night. If Donaire was a solid $1 bill when he entered the ring with “The Axeman”, he was chopped into 100 pennies and spread all over the canvas in 6 rounds.
He’ll never be put back together again.
Walters did what you’re supposed to do with a signature moment when in there with a once great fighter. He ruined him. He didn’t just beat the sh*t out of him – he beat the fighting life out of him.
Walters showed he has a chin of steel and the will of a Jaguar. He does not concede space or allow his opponent to control pace at all. He imposes himself on the proceedings like an unwanted guest at a party. He’s there to crash it – and he’ll dare your ass to throw him out of it. You can’t ask him to leave – you have to make him. Leo Santa Cruz or Carl Frampton are capable of doing this, but I don’t think they can.
Lomachenko and Rigondeaux might be able to call the police and handcuff him if you will – but I don’t know if they have the right back up. His conditioning and work ethic is such that he can fight in the same relentless way with killer instinct for 12 rounds.
Now that I know how demanding his training regimen is (its on par with that of a Floyd Mayweather) it would be very difficult for Rigondeaux to outbox him effectively the way he’d want to. There’s no way in hell its a boring fight either because “The Axeman” wouldn’t allow it.
HBO has a gem on their hands in this new apex predator swimming in the 126lb waters. They now have every reason to showcase him again opposite the man who swam across the waters of Cuba to prove his greatness. I don’t know about you, but I think the perfect stage is set for Rigondeaux vs. Walters.
Hell I might even be “The Axeman” for Halloween.
