Jamaican Nicholas Walters (25-0, 21 KO's) had his undefeated record intact on Saturday night after a dominating performance over 2012 "Fighter of the Year" Nonito Donaire.
Walters scored knockdowns in rounds three and six before he finally landed a solid counter right hand on Donaire's head at 2:59 mark in round six. Donaire was able to get up, but in shaky legs. The referee did not risk letting Donaire continue and he stopped the contest although there's only a minute left to end the round.
[caption id="attachment_4282" align="alignright" width="300"]
Photo by Naoki Fukuda[/caption]It was an extremely exciting fight, wherein both fighters have the power to hurt each other. Donaire showed he can hurt a guy like Walters who's naturally bigger than him.
Donaire (33-3, 21 KO's) moved up to featherweight division two fights ago before he faced the undefeated Walters at the StubHub Center, Carson, California, as the co-featured bout for Golovkin-Rubio middleweight clash.
In the dying seconds of Round 2, the 31 year old Donaire landed his home-run punch: the "left hook" to Walter's head. Walters wobbled and hurt. As we all know, Donaire is good finisher, if that punch landed a little bit early in Round 2, I bet, Walters might be knockout. And the fight might have ended in Round 2.
In Round 3, Donaire made a clear adjustment, or will I say, he executed another fight plan. In this round, he closed the gap and tried to neutralize Walters' long reach advantage. But Walters, being the younger and naturally bigger, dominated Donaire from the inside. He managed to sneak an uppercut that sends down Donaire to his knees.
In Round 4, Walters was in control of the fight, as Donaire went back to his original game plan, which to stay from the outside and look for counter opportunities. But Walters' long jab dominated Donaire from the outside.
In Round 6, Walters again scored a knockdown before he finally landed the shot that badly hurt Donaire that made the referee stop the fight.
It seems there's something in that Round 6, 2:59 mark for Filipino fighters. In 2012, in the same round and on the same mark, Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao, was also knocked out by rival Juan Manuel Marquez. What a coincidence! This time, it is the Filipino Flash that has been fallen in Round 6, 2:59.
With the win, the 28 years old Walters could be facing Jhonny Gonzalez next. Gonzalez (57-8, 48 KO's) is the number one featherweight according to the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board. Walters' currently ranked number 5 in this organization. And might be push up to number two spot after his big win, pushing Donaire down in the rankings that currently holds the number two spot before their bout.
Meanwhile on Sunday, morning here's what Nonito Donaire posted on social media.
Beautiful Sunday morning! Sitting here with my team just feeling blessed. Thank u for all the well wishes but God is good. I went down swinging and not running and I wouldn't have any other way. I have fought the best and never ducked anyone and in doing so sometimes the outcome is not what I want.
God saved me last night. I would have died by the sword last night. I would have kept getting up and if I stayed in that fight til the 12th I could have gotten brain damage. Walters was just too big for me. If I got past Walters I would have fought with Salido at 130lbs and really gotten hurt.
I'm going to take some time off and rebuild myself all over again. I'll come back stronger and probably at a lower weight.
Thank you for all your support and belief in me.
God bless.
No comments:
Post a Comment