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Mikey Garcia & Nonito Donaire HEADLINE BOXING TRIPLE HEADER – HBO Boxing News & Official Breakdown

By Geno McGahee

This Saturday night, HBO presents a triple header on HBO, featuring one of the biggest stars in boxing, Mikey Garcia, 32-0, 27 KO’s, as he takes on Rocky Martinez, 27-1-2, 16 KO’s, in a 12 round, WBO Super Featherweight Bout.

Garcia slowly made his way into the limelight and has done it in style. His last two fights have proven what he’s got inside of the ring. He was tough enough to hang in with Orlando Salido, dominate him, and then defeat him. He followed that up with a spectacular knockout of the once highly regarded, Juan Manuel Lopez, in the fourth round. Garcia shows poise and possesses great power. He is going to be difficult to beat.

For Martinez, he will need to be on his game to be competitive. He has eked by in his last three fights, but he has never been stopped and will try to outbox the champion, frustrate him, and take the decision. It’s a tall order for the challenger.

Nonito Donaire, 31-2, 20 KO’s, was ready to take over when Manny Pacquiao left the sport as the Filipino dominant fighter, but when he failed against Guillermo Rigondeaux and then made excuses afterwards, the public turned their backs. Donaire is no longer the #3 pound for pound fighter that he once was and he must now rebuild his career. He is going to start where it all began.

In 2007, Vic Darchinyan, 39-5-1, 28 KO’s, was tearing through boxing, bringing a unique and effective style to the ring. He was heavily favored to beat an unknown Donaire in the fight, but to the shock of many, Darchinyan was knocked out. Nonito had stamped his mark on the sport of boxing and both fighters’ careers went in different directions.

Donaire beat everyone that they put in front of him and in dramatic style, mostly. He was plowing over his opposition and was moving up in weight in the process. The fall was a lot quicker than the rise and now we have a rematch with both men trying to prove something.

Darchinyan has had plenty of ups and downs since the defeat. He has gone 11-4-1, 6 KO’s, but he has lost two of his last four fights. Expect him to fight this fight like he has nothing to lose, because he doesn’t. This fight should be very exciting and don’t be surprised if we see a different result at the end. Darchinyan may be catching Donaire at just the right time.

Rounding out the card is a match for the vacant WBO light middleweight title with Vanes Martirosyan, 33-0-1, 21 KO’s, taking on Demetrius Andrade, 19-0, 13 KO’s.

Both Martirosyan and Andrade have feasted on has-beens and never-weres for the most part, leading up to this fight, but they have both one notable exception. Vanes was able to hang tough and fight evenly with Erislandy Lara, surprising a lot of people that saw it as a mismatch. He fought to a technical draw. Andrade dominated Freddy Hernandez in his last fight, which was a very good win, launching him into this opportunity. This is a pick’em sort of fight and a good way to begin this great triple header.

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