DONAIRE IS STILL FLYWEIGHT KING BY SCORING 6TH ROUND TKO OVER MHTALANE
By Rod Mijares
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 02 Nov 2008
"Nonito shows tonight why he is the best flyweight in the world today." Bob Arum said as he introduced Nonito in the post fight press conference at Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino's press center after he scored a 6th round TKO over South African Moruti ?Baby Face? Mthalane and retained his IBF and IBO flyweight titles. Nonito having also won over Vic Darchinyan via a 5th round TKO last year and Vic Darchinyan won over Cristian Mijares tonight by way of 9th round KO in their fight in Home Depot Center, Carson, California for the IBF, WBA and WBC super flyweight titles.
Two judges scored it 49-46 after the 5th round and the third judge scored it 48-47 for Nonito. It was this close that the crowd who wanted more action booed when referee Joe Cortez signalled that the fight was over on the advised of the ring doctor who checked Mthalane's eye. "I threw a left when I switched up and boom that was it and I called the referee because I knew the fight would gonna be stopped because it was right on the money where the blood goes directly to the eye instead of cut on top of the eye, it was directly on the eye, like that line where nothing could fix it and there was no need to punish him, because he couldn't see me everytime I went on his left side. Why would I punish a guy when he was worthy of it so I called the referee," Nonito explained after the fight why he called the referee to check Mthalane's eye.
Nonito showed his boxing skills in the first uptil the third round with good jobs and combination with his left and right hooks to the body and head of Mthalane. However, it deterioted in the fourth round as Nonito was just waiting for a knockout punch as he was getting frustrated with Mthalane's good defense with his forearms and effective offense with his good jabs that threw Donaire off balance and gave the 4th round to Mthalane. Mthalane was on the offensive moving forward throwing volume punches while Nonito would counter punch while moving to the sides to avoid the rope and be pinned by Mthalane. There was little action in the 5th round that the crowd of 5,514 in attendance felt deprived and booed them to exchange more punches. Sensing this, Nonito came back in the 6th with a left to Mthalane's body and more combination until he hit him in the eye that spelt doom to Mthalane's chance.
"Maybe it's a little bit ring rust but I couldn't figure out the distance. You know every time, that he threw a job he would pull out so I couldn't really tell what his true distance was, every time that I tried to go a little bit closer and try to counter him, his jab already landed. Although, the jab was not hard and damaging, but it was effective as to get me off and frustrated me little," Nonito said. He also mentioned that he hurt his left pinkie in the second round while hitting Mthalane's head or elbow that explained why he was tentative at times and could not throw more powerful and effective punches.
Bob Arum announced that Nonito's next fight will be sometime in March next year possibly in Asia either in Manila or in Macau. His opponent could be Mexican Jorge Arce (52-4-1, 39KO) who just won in the same bout tonight at Mandalay Bay on a 4th round TKO over Isidro Garcia and retain his interim WBA super flyweight title or Mexican Fernando Montiel (37-2-1, 28KO) who will be fighting on November 2, 2008 against Juan Alberto Rosas in Mexico. Both of this fighters are in the super flyweight division. This means Nonito has to go up to 115 pounds which is not difficult for him to accomplish. However, Nonito said, "if it is on my way, I will rather fight in 118 lbs. However, it is up to my promoter."
In the main event, Julio Chavez, Jr. won over Matt Vanda and treated the crowd with excitement from the first round until the 10th round in their super welterweight fight.
Lamont Peterson from Washington D.C. captured the NABF Super Lightweight Title over Lanardo Tyner from Detroit. Other notable winner is Russian Matt Korobov who is fighting under Top Rank Promotion who won over Mexican Mario Evangelista in their middleweight bout with his impressive performance and pro debut worthy of a second look for his bright future.
Top photo: Nonito Donaire, Jr. displays his belts which he retained after stopping Moruti Mthalane of South Africa Saturday night at the Mandalay Events Center in Las Vegas. Phote by Rod Mijares.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Rod Mijares.
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