DONAIRE CRITICS: CONFUSING BRAVERY WITH STUPIDITY
By Reylan Loberternos
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 19 Aug 2009
Tungod, Inabanga, Bohol – Critics sprung like mushrooms in the wake of Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire, Jr.’s unanimous decision victory over Panama’s Rafael “El Torito” Concepcion last Saturday at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. At stake was the interim WBA super flyweight title, in a bout where Concepcion failed miserably (and maybe intentionally) to make weight.
These passionately unsatisfied boxing experts and blood-thirsty fight fans alike even had the audacity to badmouth Donaire for what they deemed was a subpar performance. They yearned for blood… expected a knockout victory… and most probably so, wanted Donaire to set his feet in front of a raging bull in Conception, engage him in a brutal exchange of fistic extravaganza, and eventually just run him over in a one-sided beat-down. Sounds pretty entertaining, isn’t it? Who wouldn’t want to see his bet brutally dominate his physically dominant foe from pillar to post? Okay, this is quite sarcastic and rather oxymoronic.
Here, let’s try to digress from these failed expectations and focus a little bit more on some of the significant factors that these critics might have failed to realize and take into consideration prior to bombarding The Filipino Flash with comments that question his courage and subjecting him to an undeserved carping.
First and foremost, Concepcion failed to beat not just the super flyweight limit of 115 lbs, but also the bantamweight maximum of 118 lbs, tipping the scales at exactly 119? lbs, one night before the fight. El Torito then ballooned to a whopping 134 lbs during fight night, while Donaire, on the other hand, weighed in at exactly 115 lbs, putting up an extra 7 when he entered the squared circle. Donaire could have opted to call the bout off and avoid sharing the ring with a much bigger fellow, but instead gave it a go and never hesitated doing so. If that’s not an act of courage and a manifestation of bravery in itself, then I don’t know how else to call it.
It might also be interesting to note that in the lower weight categories, the effect of extra poundage is far more significant than it would be in the higher divisions. To make a rather lucid depiction, consider the process of dilution. Salt concentration of a pitcher of seawater diluted with a glass of freshwater is much lower than the salt concentration of a barrel of seawater diluted with a pitcher of freshwater. Why do you think the super flyweight (115 lbs) and bantamweight (118 lbs) limits are just separated by a mere 3 lbs compared to the 15-lb difference in the maximum weight requirements for cruiserweights (190lbs) and heavyweights (205 lbs)? Your guess is as good as mine…
Now let’s go to the bout proper. Going into the fight, The Filipino Flash was obviously confident that he can take anything El Torito had to offer, as evidenced by his explosive opening salvo, staying in front of his gritty opponent, maybe thinking that he would be able to finish him off early. But he was wrong. Concepcion took everything Donaire had to offer, constantly moving forward, and pressuring (although missing a lot) his taller and faster, yet much less bulkier foe.
Then came the 2nd round, which in this writer’s humble opinion, became the turning point of Donaire’s fight plan, regardless of him hurting his hand in the succeeding round or not. Later in that eventful round, Concepcion tagged him with a vicious punch that apparently rocked him and stopped him on his tracks. Donaire felt Concepcion’s power and at the same time realized that his foe’s lightweight frame can take anything his bantamweight punches had to offer. Thus, the timely change in strategy…
Let’s face it. Donaire doesn’t have the durability of a Manny Pacquiao. He isn’t built for such fighting style. We can’t fault him for staying clear from the haymakers of his very imposing adversary as seldom as the Pacman would. Staying within punching range would have proven too costly for him, as it did to erstwhile unbeaten Pinoy prospect AJ “Bazooka” Banal when he fought Concepcion for the world title. That was the right thing to do. Had he opted to engage, as what his critics wanted, everybody would have once again experienced the same disappointment they painfully felt when Banal lost his first chance at becoming a world champion.
Donaire avoided getting hit, but he certainly wasn’t running scared. He even showed flashes of Roy Jones , Jr., Sugar Ray Leonard, and Muhammad Ali in that fight, but he never used the clinching style of the master clincher Floyd Mayweather, Jr., which causes a lot of boredom. He deserves at least a little credit for that.
He fought intelligently. The problem is that sometimes, some people confuse bravery with stupidity.
For comments: send them to reylanloberternos@yahoo.com.ph
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Reylan Loberternos.
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