DONAIRE-NISHIOKA SIDELIGHTS
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 14 Oct 2012
The final punch stats by Compubox had Nonito Donaire, Jr. landing 134 of 485 thrown to Toshiaki Nishioka's 49 of 199 punches. Donaire unleashed a left uppercut that dropped Nishioka in the sixth round. While a counter right straight floored the Japanese again the ninth, forcing referee Rafael Caiz to stop the bout when Nishioka?s corner surrendered. The judges scored 79-72, 79-72 and 80-71 all for Donaire before the stoppage.
The Home Depot Center, the venue of the fight, is a multiple-purpose sports complex located inside the campus of California State University, Dominguez Hills in Carson, California. It is situated about10 miles south of Downtown Los Angeles. Its name is sponsored by hardware retailer The Home Depot. The complex costs $150 million with a capacity of 27,000, the largest soccer-specific stadium in Major League Soccer.
Nishioka is the number one junior featherweight contender in The Ring ratings, while Donaire is the number three contender. Guillermo Rigondeaux of Cuba is number two. After the bout, Donaire won the vacant Ring junior featherweight title.
Donaire is not interested in facing Rigondeaux next because according to the ?Filipino Flash? the Cuban has to face more quality opponents. Rigondeaux?s record is 11-0-0 (8 KO?s).
Donaire also won the WBC Diamond belt offered by the World Boxing Council. Noshiaki was the WBC champion from 2008-2012 and after seven defenses including a win over Rafael Marquez. He gave it up for personal reasons without losing a title fight.
Nishioka was nicknamed ?Speed King.? But Donaire showed more speed than the Japanese. ?The difference in the fight was speed,? said Nishioka as quoted by The Ring. ?I never faced a fighter with the speed of Donaire. I never saw the uppercut.?
Donaire improved his record to 30-1-0 (19 KO?s) while Nishioka plunged to 39-5-3 (24 KO?s). Nonito?s only loss was dealt in his second professional fight by Rosendo Sanchez of California by a five-round unanimous decision in March 2001.
Boxing fanatics booed the fight as it was not as exciting as compared to the earlier co-main event of Brandon Rios winning a ninth-round TKO over Mike Alvarado, which is a candidate for the Fight of the Year.
Donaire said they were very careful because both of them were capable of ending the fight with a single KO punch. ?Nishioka's a great fighter, that's why we were kind of wary about it,? the 29-year-old winner told HBO?s Max Kellerman. ?We knew we could end the fight with one punch, and that's what happened.?
Another probable next opponent would be the winner of the fight between Abner Mares and Anselmo Moreno. While Donaire is ranked number five pound-for-pound by The Ring, Moreno of Panama (33-1-1, 12 KO?s) is ranked number ten and is the WBA bantamweight champion. American Mares (24-0-1, 13 KO?s) is the WBC junior featherweight champion. But the problem is both fighters are under the Golden Boy Promotions and the "Filipino Flash" is promoted by Top Rank of Bob Arum.
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