DONAIRE-MONTIEL IS MEXICO VS. PHILIPPINES
Fernando Montiel
BEST FIGHT OF THE NEW YEAR AT HAND
San Francisco, CA– The most highly anticipated match of the boxing year 2011, Nonito Donaire and Fernando Montiel
Nonito Lands On Darchinyan
will take place this Saturday night on HBO’s Boxing After Dark. It is a battle for the bantamweight (118 lbs) championship of a number of sanctioning bodies, but belts don’t mean anything close to the national pride involved. You see, it boils down to a Mexican in Montiel facing a Filipino in Donaire. When Manny Pacquiao started knocking over Mexican fighters like bowling pins, Mexican fight fans have been in a bit of a funk.
NONITO HAS BEEN ON A HELL OF A ROLL!
In Donaire, we have the consummate boxer/puncher at 25-1, 14 KOs. When Nonito drilled Vic Darchinyan on 7/7/07, it should have been a fast track to superstardom as the Australian was one of the better ‘pound for pound’ guys in boxing. There were several instances in which a rematch was close to fruition, but Vic’s people used a number of excuses, this even after Donaire said he’d take “short money” for the second go around. With Vic in the rear view mirror now, Nonito went out and beat another seven men, six by KO. After leaving 112 lbs, Nonito captured the gold at 115 lbs.
FERNANDO IS A NOT A FACE FIRST FIGHTER
Montiel is not a consummate boxer in the Donaire mold, but he is not your typical Mexican brawler. At one point and time, I referred to him as “Superfly,” but that was before an aged Mark Johnson beat him in 2003 with a UD 12 and took the WBO super flyweight (115) title from the then 24-1 Mexican. Fernando went on a six fight winning streak before losing in 2006 to Jhonny Gonzalez. A dozen wins later and Montiel is 44-2-2, 34 KOs entering Saturday’s bout.
CLOSE FIGHT DESPITE ALMOST 3-1 ODDS
Fernando throws combinations, has a great KO percentage, and can box well with adequate hand speed. Having been installed as the 2 1/2 to 1 underdog, Montiel’s people think Donaire can be worked over if you can get him to the ropes. I expect Fernando to push his way towards Nonito, who will be hoping his hand and foot speed advantages will be looking to pick apart the incoming Mexican. My prediction on this, the best Boxing After Dark main event in many a moon will appear here on Friday. The $64,000 question of the day is who do you think prevails here and why?
Pedro Fernandez
