Last night at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada, Nonito Donaire gave us a very real taste of his potential greatness as he crushed WBC and WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel inside of two rounds. With the victory Donaire becomes a champion in a third weight class and also holds the distinction of being the only man to ever stop the Los Mochis, Sinaloa fighter.
For Donaire this was a moment of triumph and vindication. His July 2007 upset over Vic Darchinyan was equally as thrilling but in the three and a half years since that feat he had been unable to lure the type of opponents into the ring that would have perked the public’s interest. In Montiel he had the perfect foil on paper and his victory couldn’t have been any sweeter.
<--- Slideshow: Massive gallery of Nonito Donaire's triumph over Fernando Montiel
The talk will now turn to Donaire’s future in the sport, as despite his insistence that he would like to clean house at 118 pounds, people have already begun fascinating about his future endeavors in the junior featherweight and featherweight classes.
But that’s down the road. For now we simply should enjoy the moment for what it is; one of the sport’s best fighters breaking through in a way that only special kind of athletes do. Nonito Donaire has arrived.
Chris Robinson is based out of Las Vegas, Nevada. He can be reached at [email protected]
