After eight rounds Saturday, Nonito Donaire needed two knockdowns to win a decision over Vic Darchinyan. In the ninth round, Donaire scored the knockdowns, and more. He stopped Darchinyan in an overdue demonstration of desperation that fortunately for him was spectacular.
The ninth round saved the elite phase of Donaire?s career, which was jeopardized by his April loss to Guillermo Rigondeaux, a snoozer that HBO and promoter Bob Arum deemed too boring to repeat.
And then Donaire delivered eight rounds of the same Saturday against Darchinyan in what was becoming a disappointing rematch of Donaire?s career-shaping 2007 upset. Both he and Darchinyan were determined to counter-punch, yet each won rounds when he was the aggressor. I thought Donaire won the first, second, sixth and eighth rounds, but two of the three judges had Darchinyan winning six rounds and leading by four points after eight rounds.
Donaire is too superior to be losing so many rounds. By some counts he has lost 17 of 20 judged rounds to Darchinyan and Rigondeaux. This unsettling statistic, unsettling even though I thought he lost only 11 of the 20, overrides the scintillating conclusion Saturday. Donaire has been in a rut this year, and we don?t know if he escaped it in that ninth round.
Donaire acknowledged afterward Saturday that he waited too long to dispense with formalities and whale away at Darchinyan. Then again, he acknowledged he should have tried to accumulate points against Rigondeaux instead of trying to design a one-punch knockout.
?I was trying to work on different styles,? Donaire conceded. ?After a while, I wanted to fight.?
It was almost too late by the time Donaire fully engaged, even after staggering to a corner near the end of the fifth round.
?I felt like he broke my cheek,? Donaire said, ?so I thought, ?is this it for me? Is this it for me?? ?
It would have been had he not broken loose in the ninth.
Donaire turned the tide by landing a cracking counter left hook, the first really notable rendition of that punch. A combination knocked down Darchinyan, and that set up the rest –a thunderous right, one exchange, and then a left cross from a southpaw stance that put Darchinyan away at 2 minutes, 6 seconds of the ninth, with referee Laurence Cole stopping the bout.
Donaire needed nothing less. In the wake of the Rigondeaux fight, a loss to Darchinyan, or even a narrow decision win, would have been devastating, but Donaire (32-2, 21 knockouts) took care of that in the most rousing manner possible.
Other bouts: Donaire stablemate Mikey Garcia (33-0, 28 knockouts) knocked out champion Roman ?Rocky? Martinez in the eighth round for the World Boxing Association super-featherweight (130 title) in Saturday?s finale. Also on the Corpus Christi card, Demetrius Andrade (20-0) survived a first-round knockdown and outpointed Vanos Martirosyan for the WBO light-middleweight title. And in a WBA featherweight title fight that may have determined what Donaire does next, unbeaten Jamaican champion Nicholas Walters stopped Alberto Garza in the fourth round. There are interesting opponents in the featherweight division. Donaire, fortunately, wants to rectify things with Rigondeaux next.
