Donaire wants to go for early kill vs Montiel

More than his stunning win over Vic Darchinyan four years ago, Nonito Donaire considers his coming 12-round title fight with Mexican Fernando Montiel as the one that will define his boxing career.

"I’m taking on a great champion and I’m going to prove where I stand in boxing," vowed the soft-spoken former world flyweight champion during the formal announcement of his Feb. 19 championship bout with Montiel Monday in Las Vegas for the World Boxing Council (WBC) and World Boxing Organization (WBO) bantamweight belts.

Donaire barged into big-time boxing when he dealt the brash and fearsome Vic Darchinyan his first career loss — a stunning fifth round knockout at Bridgeport, USA — to wrest the International Boxing Federation (IBF) flyweight crown.

The 28-year-old Filipino was then a 7-1 underdog to beat Darchinyan in the fight adjudged as the `Knockout and Upset of the Year’.

But in facing Montiel, the tide has been reversed as the Filipino born in Taliban, Bohol is installed a 2-1 favorite owing to his sensational fourth round demolition of former bantamweight titlist Wladimir Sidorenko in Anaheim, California last month.

Donaire (25-1, 17 KOs) has now won eight of his last nine fights by way of knockout.

And he vows to add Montiel, 31, to his growing list of victims.

“It will not go 12 rounds. I have power. He has power. I want to win by knockout. He wants to win by knockout," Donaire noted.

Montiel is not a bit perturbed by the growing reputation of Donaire as one of the best bantamweights — and pound-for-pound fighter for that matter — in the sport today.

“This is the kind of fight that motivates me," said the Mexican champion, who is coming off a second-round knockout of Jovanny Soto also in December in his final tune-up before taking on Donaire.

“I am not worried about Nonito being the favorite. You should run to the sports book and bet on me. It is a very important fight for me and a great opportunity to prove that I am one of the best fighters in the world. I expect a tough fight, but I also expect to win."

Just one of four Mexican fighters to win world titles in three different weight divisions after Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera, Montiel (43-2-2, 33 KOs) was also an underdog when he invaded Japan last April to defend his titles against Hozumi Hasegawa.

Trailing on all three scorecards after three rounds, Montiel proceeded to stop Hasegawa in the fourth to grab the WBC version of the 118-pound title.

“We don't worry about odds. We were a 3-to-1 underdog in Japan when Fernando won a world title," noted Fernando Beltran, who co-promotes Montiel, winner of world titles at junior bantamweight and flyweight.

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum sees the fight going down as one of the best in boxing’s lower weight division.

Arum even boasted that the fight has the potential to follow the path of the action-packed world junior flyweight title bout between Michael Carbajal and the legendary Humberto Gonzales in 1993 at the Las Vegas Hilton, which Carbajal won with a 7th round knockout after being down in the second and fifth rounds.

“Eighteen years ago, I promoted a fight with two 108-pound world champions which was one of the greatest events I ever promoted," said Arum of that memorable championship match in the early '90s.

“It proved to everyone that dynamite can come in all sizes and packages. Montiel vs. Donaire will feature a match-up between two hard-punching bantamweights that is every bit as explosive as Carbajal-Gonzalez. It's a can't-miss fight, and the fans will be assured of seeing a dynamite event." - KY, RCJ, GMANews.TV

Warning for Donaire: Montiel Will Knock You Out

Freddie Roach recently made comments warning Nonito Donaire about Montiel, not to take the fight so lightly because Montiel knows how to win. Roach gave Nonito a 50/50 chance of winning the fight. Freddie Roach’s warning probably didn’t go far enough; Donaire should be warned that he is at high risk of getting knocked out by the merciless finisher Montiel. This is the heavy reason why Donaire will more likely lose the fight by knockout: Weight problems are catching up with Donaire. Donaire himself has admitted that after the fight with Montiel, he plans to move up to a higher division.


Donaire has been milking the advantage of ballooning up after weigh-ins to beat much smaller ham and egg palookas, but that is getting harder to do, he is being forced by nature to move up to higher weight divisions, it will be hard for him to make even the super bantamweight division, but if he moves to the featherweight division he has zero chances against the monsters there, Juan Manual Lopez, and Yuriorkis Gamboa. Donaire can try to hide in the super bantamweight division and fight obscure easy opponents, but no one in the United States will want to watch those fights. Donaire will have to move to Japan where he will have a better market for those types of fights and will be forgotten in America like another Jorge Linares.

If you mix Donaire’s weight problems with the fact that Fernando Montiel is at the peak of his boxing career then you have a recipe for Donaire to get knocked out. Donaire is going to have to starve and dehydrate himself to make the weight for the fight with Montiel. Nonito will balloon-up after the weigh-in, but he is no longer 20 years old, his body will not be able to rehydrate well and adjust to the big weight gain after he balloons up. Donaire will enter the fight emaciated, pale, on tooth pick legs, his jaw will be an easy victim for a bone shattering Montiel hook. If Donaire decides to run, it will do him no good, Montiel knows how to cut off the ring, Montiel eventually will bring down the wobbly legged Donaire.

Although this writer agrees that Nonito Donaire is the best skilled Filipino boxer of today, it is also true that Donaire’s status is based mostly on his ability to manipulate his weight in order to fight smaller fighters lacking any boxing skills. The only true accomplishment of Donaire is his win over Vic Darchinyan, other than that his exploits are empty vain talk by media whores who sell themselves out for money to promote certain fighters like Khan, Pacquiao. Donaire until now has wasted his career in hiding from big fights; time is catching up with him and he has finally decided to take a risk in fighting Fernando Montiel. Win or lose the prospects are not good for Donaire, if he moves up to super bantamweight he will still have problems making weight and will have to fight in Japan, the only ones interested in that weight class are the Japanese, and if he moves up to his natural weight, the featherweight division, he has null chances against the fighters there. To this writer it seems that after the Montiel fight, Nonito Donaire’s career in boxing is pretty much over. Of course he can continue fighting palookas, but in the sense of doing anything great in boxing after the Montiel fight, Donaire is done.

Montiel vs Donaire: What will Nonito’s reaction be when Fernando tags him hard?

Nonito Donaire (25-1, 17 KO’s) is good at dishing out punishment with left hooks and right hands to the head, but he’s a lot different fighter when he starts getting hit hard. This was the case when he took on Rafael Concepcion in August 2009. Concepcion figured out how to batter Donaire by rushing forward and blasting away on the inside, and Donaire had no defense nor any answer to that style of fighting.

On February 19th, Donaire, 28, is going to be facing a much bigger puncher than Concepcion in 31-year-old WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel (44-2-2, 34 KO’s) in a fight that will be taking place at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. I expect Montiel to be able to blast Donaire into small pieces of rubble in the same way that Montiel was able to destroy Concepcion in three easy rounds earlier this year in July. This was the same Concepcion that Donaire went life and death with.


I think Donaire will do just fine as long as he doesn’t get hit the fight. However, once Montiel starts putting hands on Donaire, the fight is going to evolve into something much more similar to the Donaire-Concepcion fight where Donaire will start looking like a timid rabbit, and will start running laps round the ring nonstop while trying to avoid tasting any more of Montiel’s big right hands and left hooks.

Montiel is the type of fighter where you can’t let him hit you at all, because he simply hits way too hard to remain standing for long once he starts connecting. His power reduces his opponents into fleeing little rabbits, and I expect that’s what Donaire will resemble once Montiel revs up his offense and starts landing. Like I said, Donaire can dish it out but he can’t take shots well, and seems to stress out when he gets hit had with a flush shots to the face. He backs up and gets a panicky look on his face and starts with the old lateral movement around the ring to prevent getting hit again.