Donaire marches on

Nonito Donaire Jr. showed the boxing world last Sunday morning (Saturday night in Anaheim, California), that he truly deserves to be one of boxing’s best pound-for-pound fighter by carving out a one-sided TKO victory in the fourth round over Ukrainian Wladimir Sidorenko to win the vacant World Boxing Council (WBC) Continental Americas bantamweight title. Donaire sent Sidorenko three times to the canvas before becoming the first man to stop Sidorenko.

It was the first time that Donaire, 28, competed in the 118-pound bantamweight division and he looked extraordinarily sharp against the 34-year old Sidorenko. With the victory, Donaire improved his record to 25-1-0 (17) while Sidorenko dropped to 22-3-2 (7). Donaire is now being lined up by Bob Arum of Top Rank against Fernando Montiel, World Boxing Organization and WBC champion. Montiel has an upcoming fight and if he wins it, Donaire will be his next opponent. On Feb. 19, 2011 seems to be the date of the much anticipated fight.

Donaire looked impressive with his left jab which set up Soderonko for a looping right hand that caught the Ukrainian flush in the jaw and dropped him in the first round. The uppercut of Donaire also did a lot of damage as it prevented the shorter Ukrainian from going under the taller Donaire’s (5’7”) punches.

The CompuBox PunchStat Report stated that, in the first round, Donaire landed 25 out of 39 punches for a 54 percent performance while Sidorenko landed just 18 punches. The statistics clearly show that Sidorenko was not in on it from opening bell.

In a post-fight interview, the articulate Donaire said that he wanted to make a statement in his fight with Sidorenko. It was clear that Donaire did make a statement – that he was ready for Montiel.

Writer Ryan Burton reported that Donaire addressed BoxingScene.com as he headed to the locker room after the four-round destruction of Sidorenko, “This was my best performance by far”. His trainer, Robert Garcia, who trained Antonio Margarito into high levels of confidence for the latter’s fight against Manny Pacquiao, agreed with his pupil, “Donaire was great”.

Donaire is one of few fighters who can be called a switch-hitter: he can fight either southpaw or orthodox. In Donaire’s fight against Hernan Marquez on July 10 this year, the Filipino Flash alternated between fighting southpaw and orthodox as “part of an experiment”. This time, against Sidorenko, except for a very brief moment, Donaire fought orthodox. Donaire’s left, however, inflicted heavy damage as it set up the right for powerful shots that eventually downed Sidorenko.

Competing in the bantamweight division has always been a goal of Donaire, a former World Boxing Association (WBA) super flyweight interim world champion, International Boxing Federation (IBF) world flyweight champion and IBO world flyweight champion.   He had said so after defeating Marquez via an eight-round stoppage.    

Donaire comes from a long line of boxers, starting with his father, Nonito Sr. who fought as an amateur in the Philippines. Glenn, an older brother, and Nonito, both fought as amateurs. The younger Nonito won three national championships in the United States and decided to become a professional. He had won the National Silver Gloves in 1998, the National Junior Olympics in 1999 and the national US tournament in 2000.

In 2001, Donaire turned professional. He won his first fight, against Jose Lazaro, by knockout in the first round. He lost, however, his second fight, against Rosendo Sanchez, a little more than a month after he won his first fight. Since that loss by unanimous decision on March 10, 2001 at the Pacific Sports Center in Vallejo, Donaire has been on a 24-fight winning streak, counting among his victims, Victor Darchinyan.

Darchinyan has publicly expressed his desire for a rematch with Donaire all over the place but every time the deal was supposed to have been inked, the Darchinyan camp would complain about a number of things ranging from purses to television coverage rights. Donaire had knocked out Darchinyan in the fifth round to wrest the IBF and IBO flyweight world titles.

Donaire was a 7-1 underdog before the fight. Darchinyan, known also as a power puncher, was unbeaten prior to the fight and Donaire’s victory was considered stunning enough for it be awarded Ring Magazine’s “Knockout of the Year” and “Upset of the Year”.

At the moment, it seems pretty clear that Donaire is much more comfortable, as a bantamweight. He has said that his ultimate objective is to conquer the tough lightweight division which means he’ll go up against bigger opponents who will of course pack heavier punches. It would be interesting how Donaire will adjust to the heavy hitters after having gotten rid of majority of his opponents in the lighter weights almost unscathed.