After 6 years, Donire and Darchinyan to Slug it Out Again!
By Carlos Costa
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 01 Sep 2013
Yes, after 6 years, Nonito Donaire and Vic Darchinyan will slug it out for the fans again! Former champion Nonito Donaire will make his featherweight debut in a November rematch with nemesis Vic Darchynian, Bob Arum said yesterday.
It's not clear if the 12 rounder will be on November 9th or 16th and not yet specified which title will be on the line as none of the boxers hold any belt at the moment, though in today's boxing titles are not a problem.
Nonito has always been one heck of a boxer and watching his fights is thrilling. Who can forget his awesome spectacular knock out of the year over Fernando "Kochulito" Montiel?
The first time I attended a Donaire fight was with my great great pal Dong Secuya, the creator of PhilBoxing.com, at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas back in 2008.
Back then Flyweight Nonito was not the star he is now. The fight was a complicated rumble against "Baby Face" Mthalane (the current IBF Flyweight champ) as the talented South African is a tough nut to crack. But Nonito - with his dad in his corner - pulled off the difficult win.
In addition, I've been a big fan of Vic Darchiyan and I have attended his fights as well and Vic is not boring at all.
I remember attending his intense fight against Z Gorres in Cebu in 2008. The heated fight ended in a draw. Then again, I attended Vic's rumble against slick speedster Shimsuke Yamanaka (the current WBC bantamweight world champ) in April of last year in Tokyo.
In that one Vic lost. He bled a lot from the sharp punches the fast Japanese poured on him. But till the last second of action Vic tried to put down Yamanaka.
Indeed, from flyweight to bantamweight Darchinyan has fought some of the very best warriors out there. But the die hard Armenian has never fought at 126 lbs, and it seems to me that he is way too short in height for the featherweight division.
My opinion, the younger Nonito can adapt well to the 126 pounds, but Vic, I don't think so.
Talking about age, in the November rematch against Donaire, Vic will be near 38 years of age, while Nonito will 31. Seven years difference in boxing is a considerable amount of miles that could affect Vic more than Donaire.
Furthermore, winning or losing Vic is always so confident and his ego could not be bigger, which is an awesome attribute for an athlete competing at a top level.
But how will be the confidence level of Nonito after his dismal lost against Cuban Guillermo Rigondeaux?
That we have to see.
Because in that combat against the Cuban, Nonito did not look technical at all. In a way, he was exposed. "The Jackal" was more skillful, shrewd and smart like a real jackal. In fact, that night Rigondeaux schooled Donaire and that is why he lost his two world titles.
To make things worst, that April night, Nonito got a damaged right shoulder, for which he underwent surgery, as well as a badly swollen eye as result of one of Rigondeaux's thunderous left blows directly into Donaire's vision device.
That perfect Cuban shot clearly hurt the Filipino Flash near the end of the match, putting Nonito into an overly defensive mode, covering his eye with his glove for the rest of the battle. When I saw that swollen eye, I was worried that the injury to his eye was really bad. Fortunately, it was not.
In conclusion, "The Raging Bull" is always entertaining. That is why he has legions of fans in all continents. Nonito is awesome as well. That is why this rematch is being welcomed and exciting for sure will be. You can bet that the proud Darchinyan will be super motivated. But his rematch with Donaire is gonna be tough ride.
Carlos Costa from Panama has attended professional and amateur boxing since the times of Roberto Duran and enjoys live boxing in venues from as far as Pinar del Rio in Cuba to the National Stadium in Thailand.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Carlos Costa.
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