While his stunning win by knockout over Fernando Montiel of Mexico has been chosen by Sports Illustrated as ?The Knockout of the Year? for 2011, Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire, Jr. remains too far from becoming a Pay-per-View fighter unless he goes out to fight real-time, competitive fighters in the junior lightweight division where he truly belongs.
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Donaire, Jr.’s boxing skills, power and intelligence are factors he has so long underestimated with his less than fearless foresight. In fact, several boxing aficionados think he has brought down his own potentials after that one punch stoppage of Australian-Armenian former IBF/IBO flyweight champion Vic ?Raging Bull? Darchinyan in the fifth round of their title fight on July 7, 2007. He could have sustained his momentum and sought better critical pathways to fight in the big league. Advertisement
Donaire, Jr.’s promoter, Top Rank Godfather Robert “Bob”Arum, wants him to fight at the more acceptable weight classes, to sell to the American market.
“It’s very hard to sell Americans 112, 115, 122, and 126 pounds,” says Arum. ” There’s very little money down on these weight classes.”
“It’s easy to sell to the Americans the super featherweight, lightweight and welterweight fighters and up, simple as that.”
But, Donaire, Jr. continues to cherry-pick. Even his victory over Montiel that affords him the accolade may not be so appealing to the hardcore boxing fans and to the elite thinkers and marketers behind the sport of boxing. If such awarding is meant to encourage him to drum beat his substandard choices of match-ups, then so be it. Still, the boxing minds know what is at stake.
Arum himself may have been overly generous for rewarding Donaire, Jr. a three-quarter of a million dollars when he fought Omar “El Hurican” Narvaez, 36, of Argentina at the Madison Garden, WaMu Theater in New York City last October. To some, it was a shut-out victory by Donaire, Jr. But, to many, it was ironically a victory in which the challeger successfully disarmed him of his left hand in their twelve rounds of boxing.
After the said bout, Donaire, Jr. tried hard to sell his brazen story, marked by flagrant and insolent audacity, apologizing the public of such boring fight intimating that it was the fault of Narvaez. His quest was such of a lousy attempt to keep the night shorter when, in fact, it only went to show he was ineffective and afraid to take extra mile of consistent attacks against the too small, too old and too slow opponent.
One thing, though, Top Rank was unhappy of the outcome: Donaire, Jr. was exposed!
Donaire, Jr., the current holder of WBC and WBO Bantamweight titles, is scheduled to fight the challenger from Puerto Rico, Wilfredo Vazquez, on February 24, 2012 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
But, would his fight against Vazquez prove any better than his victory over Montiel?
Many still doubt.
