Nonito Donaire: Not Even Close to the Next Manny Pacquiao
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By Lou Eisen
In what has to be considered (somewhat of) an upset, at the StubHub Center in Carson City, California, Jamaica’s Nicholas “Axeman” Walters, 25-0, 21 KO’s lived up to his fearsome reputation by knocking out Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire, 33-3, 21 KO’s in six one-sided brutal rounds. Donaire who was once thought to be invincible earlier in his career as a bantamweight was all too human at featherweight against the power punching Walters. Walters was just too big, too fast and too powerful for Donaire to overcome. Walters dropped Donaire to the canvas in the third round. It was the very first knockdown of Donaire’s illustrious career. With the convincing win, Walters successfully annexed Donaire’s WBA super world featherweight title while still maintaining his undefeated pro record.
Walters is known mostly to people within the sport and to hardcore fight fans. Most casual fans had not heard of him until he stopped Donaire. In the end, it was a case of a very good featherweight beating a very good bantamweight. Both fighters were extremely gracious to each other during the post fight interviews. When asked what happened after the fight by HBO’s Max Kellerman, Donaire was forthright and said, very bluntly, “He beat the living sh*t” out of me,” several times to Kellerman. Donaire was certainly correct in his assessment of what had just taken place in the ring.
Donaire will no doubt take some time off to recover from the worst loss of his career. He will sit down with his wife and discuss whether or not he should continue on in his boxing career. He is by no means finished as an elite fighter although he may be finished as a featherweight fighter. He will likely now return to the super bantamweight division. Gone forever most likely, is his dream of winning the super featherweight and lightweight world titles. Donaire is simply not big enough physically to compete as an elite featherweight, although he did rock Walters with a powerful counter left hook at the end of round two.
In 2011, Donaire annihilated Fernando Montiel in two rounds with a spectacular left hook to the chin. Montiel fell to the mat, his body and legs convulsing from the sheer power of Donaire’s homerun shot. In a sense that victory hurt Donaire’s career as it turned him from a technical fighter with pop into a boxer that only chose to head hunt from then on. Forsaking his technical boxing skills from that fight forward, Donaire would concede rounds in order to try and land one big shot to end his previous fights. His style was no different against Walters and that was a big mistake.
Styles make fights and Donaire did not properly adjust his style against Walters, even when he realized that it was not working. Head hunting is a dangerous way to fight. Knockouts should happen organically, as a matter of course during the fight. Fighters that go out gunning for knockouts usually end up losing by knockouts themselves. Why? Because they are taking unnecessary and extraordinary risks to score a knockout, and in the process, they are leaving themselves wide open and susceptible to being caught with a quick but crushing counter shot.
Donaire’s fans can be forgiven for being frustrated with their hero. Even after Walters dropped him to the canvas the first time, the “Filipino Flash” still did not alter his approach. Famed trainer Angelo Dundee used to say, “If you crack a guy with your best shot and nothing happens, then you better know how to box.” Donaire backed himself into a corner by giving away so many rounds while trying to score an early knockout against Walters that he put himself in the unenviable position of actually having to score a knockout just to salvage a victory. Donaire had clearly lost at least five of the six rounds they had fought.
It was a remarkable fight in many respects. It should be remembered that Donaire is ideally a bantamweight who was fighting outside of his regular weight class against a legitimate career featherweight. Donaire entered the ring after rehydrating to a weight of 133 lbs. whereas Walters rehydrated to a weight of 138 lbs. The real difference between the two men was with their height and reach. Walters stands 5’7” and boasts a reach of 73 inches. Donaire stands 5’5’ and one half inches tall with a reach of 68 inches, five inches less than that of Walters.
Donaire seemed at a loss as to what to do when he was unable to consistently land his big shots on Walters. In fact, except for the end of round two, none of Donaire’s big shots did much when they landed on Walters. Donaire managed to stagger Walters twice with his left hook, which was not enough to win the fight. Once Walters realized that he could slip Donaire’s jab and come over it with a right hook, he never missed an opportunity to do so. Donaire was physically not strong enough to contain Walters in the clinches. Walters manhandled Donaire during each clinch while relentlessly pounding away at his body and head.
There is no shame in losing to Walters for Donaire. He did his very best and still came up short. Donaire made an obvious tactical error long before he entered the ring by hiring his father to train him once again. Donaire had blossomed under the skilled eye of trainer Roberto Garcia. To reduce Garcia from strategist to a cutman in the corner was a bad move indeed. It was a waste of a great trainer’s talents and, in the end it helped contribute to Donaire’s downfall.
Ultimately, what really happened was quite simple. While diehard fans of Donaire’s look furiously for some obscure reason why their man lost, it really comes down to one irrefutable, easy to understand fact. An outstanding featherweight beat will often beat an outstanding bantamweight and that is precisely what happened in this situation. Surely Donaire won’t be the only great fighter to taste defeat courtesy of Walters. There are a host of reasons why Donaire lost. In the end, does it really matter? As JFK once said, “Victory has a thousand fathers while defeat is an orphan.” In boxing, that is known as a truism.
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