The upcoming fight between Nonito Donaire and Fernando Montiel come February 19, 2011, at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, Nevada is very interesting to watch.
Since Donaire’s demolition of the once unbeaten and feared Vic Darchinyan, the Armenian-Australian IBF and IBO Flyweight boxing champion, in the 5th round of July, 2007, since then, Donaire had been pitted up with less known contenders to keep him going.
Like Pacquiao, Donaire has seemed to have the Mexican numbers with him, out of the 12 Mexican fighters he fought since turning professional he won them all, he won 2 by unanimous decisions and the rest he won them by either KO or TKO. In this forthcoming bout, Montiel will be the 13th Mexican fighter that Donaire has to deal with.
Unlike Pacquiao who has no formal amateur record to speak of, Donaire has an impressive amateur fight record of 68 wins and only 8 losses. In his professional fight his only loss is to an American named Rosendo Sanchez in his second professional fight where he took it on short notice. In their clash, Donaire was not able to knock Sanchez down.
It was a close fight though, Donaire thought that he won, but it could have gone either way. Sanchez then retire one fight later and Donaire did not have the opportunity to avenge his only defeat in his professional career.
His being tagged as “The Filipino Flash”, he must have probably earned it due to his balanced fighting style that of a counter puncher and an aggressor which is not common to most fighters.
While in the ring he can easily adjust when to utilize of either style at his advantage. It is for this reason that his fighting style is not only catered to pure boxers but most suitably crafted to sluggers with the likes of Darchinyan and Sidorenko who always keep on going in front of him, suffice to say that most Mexican fighters are sluggers and Montiel is no exception.
It is also perhaps for this reason that the Las Vegas bookmakers pick Donaire, the challenger as the favorite over Montiel the champion as the underdog. However, fighting style alone does not win fights, the fighter must be in the best of shape physically and mentally in order to win.
The way Donaire has shown his wares in his recent fight with Sidorenko, there is no doubt that his physical conditioning and mental preparation were superb in that occasion. His ring movement, speed and punching power were excellent.
If Donaire can be able to replicate the same in his clash with Montiel, there’s no reason that he could not be the new WBC and WBO Bantamweight Champion of the world, after his fight with Montiel.
