CONTROVERSIAL SPLIT DECISION WIN BY DONAIRE OVER VASQUEZ
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 05 Feb 2012
Nonito ?The Filipino Flash? Donaire, Jr. knocked Wilfredo ?Papito? Vasquez, Jr. down in the ninth round and looked like he was headed to a unanimous decision win over the Puerto Rican. Donaire dropped Vasquez down with 50 seconds left in round nine with a strong upper cut followed by a devastating left hook.
It was the only knock down of the fight. Though Vasquez showed to the boxing world that he is terribly tough and had survived the flurry of the Filipino Flash who floored several big names in boxing.
Judges Levi Martinez and Don Trella scored it 117-110 in favor of Donaire. These figures were realistic enough because as many saw it Vasquez only won two or three rounds and was clearly behind during the ninth round when he was floored.
But boxing fans could not see the logic of Judge Ruben Garcia in scoring it 115-112 in favor of Vasquez. Garcia is a boxing judge from Texas, where there was a dominance of the Latino population, many of whom were rooting for Vasquez.
Donaire showed to the camera that his hand tapes had blood in the left hand. It was said to be broken in the fourth round and must be hurting throughout the duration of the fight. Vasquez showed so much composure even in the rounds where Donaire had been very dominant. He inflicted good jabs on the Filipino Flash and scored some excellent punches especially on the sixth and seventh rounds.
Vasquez was able to push Donaire to corner him in some instances. Though the Filipino showed brilliant defense when the Puerto Rican tried to pin him to the ropes and unleashed barrage of punches.
But on the whole duration of the fight, clearly it was Donaire who was prevailing over Vasquez. There were instances of showboating by Nonito in the eighth round. He danced and threw flurry of jabs and punches as he coasted along to victory in the final canto. He used a domineering southpaw stance to the utmost advantage.
The fight showed why Nonito is considered as the successor of Manny ?Pacman? Pacquiao. He won his fourth weight division title as the WBO super bantamweight title. He also won as IBF flyweight champion, interim WBA super flyweight champion, and WBC and WBO bantamweight champion.
Donaire then avenged the loss of countryman Marvin Sonsona on a fourth round KO at the hands of Vasquez last 2010. With the victory, he improved his ring record to 28-1 with 18 KOs. However in a non-convincing split decision even if the win was very convincing.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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