Donaire-Vetyeka: Interesting match-up

Exactly a month ago, on March 30, we bumped into three-division world boxing champion Nonito Donaire Jr and wife Rachel at the hallway of the EDSA Shangri-La hotel. The Donaires were with friends and were on their way to their rooms to call it a night when we stepped out into the hallway. We were looking for one of our sons, former Quezon City first district councilor, Joseph, to ask him about some stuff we left with him during the wedding reception of his older brother, Vincent, held earlier at Wack Wack Golf and Country Club.

I had taken no more than a few steps when the Donaires emerged into the corner of the long hallway after stepping out of the elevator. I was startled since I didn’t expect to see them in our sleep shorts and old T-shirt. Joseph had told me that he and Nonito had chatted for a brief moment at the EDSA lobby in the afternoon before we left for the wedding Mass at Sanctuario San Jose in Green Hills.

We invited the Donaires into our room with Joseph eventually joining us and engaging Nonito in boxing banter. Rachel went straight to my wife Margie and the two had their own catching up to do.

In our brief conversation and with, at that time about six weeks to go before the fight, it having been scheduled then within the first half of May, Nonito told us that he was deep in training and looked forward to his first fight for 2014.

The year 2013 wasn’t a great year for Donaire as he himself and the boxing community know. His first fight that year, on April 4, at the Radio City Music Hall in New York, ended in disaster. It is one fight that Donaire would rather forget except for the valuable lessons he learned. Donaire lost his WBO and The Ring super bantamweight titles and failed to capture the WBA super bantamweight crown to the wily Cuban former Olympian, Guillermo Rigondeaux.

Donaire was behind in points in his rematch against Vic Darchinyan on November 9, 2013 at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas until the ninth when Donaire stopped the Australian for the second time.

In the Rigondeaux bout, Donaire lost in all judges’ scorecards and saw his 12-year winning streak (since losing to Rosendo Sanchez by unanimous decision on March 10, 2001) snapped by the technically sound Rigondeaux who will, unfortunately, not make big bucks from boxing simply because he doesn’t provoke excitement. Donaire knocked down the Cuban in the 10th round but failed to follow up, lacking the patience to go after the slippery Rigondeaux and hoping to finish the Cuban with one big punch.

 On May 31, Donaire faces South African Simpiwe (“Simphiwe” is however embroidered on his boxing robe he wore in his fight against Indonesia’s Chris John) Vetyeka. The 5’7” Vetyeka is the current WBA featherweight champion after he upset John, who had a 10-year reign as featherweight champion and had behind him 18 title defenses.

 Vetyeka is the second South African who Donaire will meet in the ring, the first having been the lanky Jeffrey Mathebula whom he beat over 12 rounds on July 7, 2012 at The Home Depot Center in Carson, California. Donaire couldn’t finish the rangy South African although there were reports that Donaire sent Mathebula to hospital with a broken jaw.

It can be said that Vetyeka, who at 33 is no spring chicken himself, came at the right time since, at 34 and 52 fights (with 48 wins, including one over a unanimous decision win over Juan Manuel Marquez on March 4, 2006 in Tenggarong, Indonesia, and 22 by KO), John has seen enough of boxing over a 14-year career. He was a member of Indonesia’s wushu national team before turning pro in 2000. He was gold medalist in the 1997 Jakarta Southeast Asian (SEA) Games and captured the bronze medal in the 2001 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur.

Prior to his ill-fated fight with Vetyeka, John had challenged Marquez to a second bout after the latter won by knockout over Pacquiao in December 2012 in Las Vegas. The plan was for the two to fight as lightweights: John would move up to the 135 pound limit while Marquez would lose some weight to go down from welterweight.

We saw the tapes of the John-Vetyeka match held in Metro City, Perth, Australia on December 6, 2013 and we thought that John may have underestimated the South African who climbed the ring with a record of 25-2, 15 KOs. The Indonesian took the first two rounds but lost the third and fourth and seemed to have lost steam by the fifth round after aiming for an early knockout.

Vetyeka who is a counter puncher should not have normally given John any problems since the latter is used to higher caliber counter punchers like Marquez. John however did not have the timing and was missing wildly especially from the third round onward. John was decked in the fifth round and was again in deep trouble in the sixth. John, the second Indonesian, after Daud Yordan, to lose to Vetyeka, didn’t answer the bell for the seventh round. Seven days later, on December 19, John announced his retirement from professional boxing.

Based on what we have seen of both Vetyeka and Donaire, the Filipino should overcome this new challenge. The South African has an outstanding 62% (16 wins by KO out of 26 victories) knockout rate and, although taller than Donaire, may not have the wherewithal to match Donaire’s power and solid counterpunching style.