First off, Donaire's flaws were his undoing from the very beginning. Most of us were well aware of some of Donaire’s weaknesses, which he showed during the run that earned him the FOTY title. Against Vasquez, he seemed unable to create openings and struggled to put together more than one punch at a time. The same thing happened against Mathebula, who forced Donaire to lead, and even though Donaire broke his jaw early on with a left hook, was never able to finish him. He kept chasing and looking for that one punch to end the fight, and it never came. Personally, I thought he fought smarter against Arce and Nishioka by setting up his punches and throwing more combinations, but it seems it wasn’t nearly enough to compensate for Rigondeaux’s counter-punching ability. From the start, Nonito was trying to establish his jab, and was trying to establish himself as the superior boxer. Very quickly though it appeared that he wasn’t getting the better of it, as Rigondeaux was landing hard lefts to the body and turning into his jab. Rigo kept checking Donaire with his right jab any time Donaire stepped in and Donaire wasn’t able to jab over it. This led to Donaire falling hard into his old pattern of looking for that one punch. All this accomplished was to allow Rigondeaux to use his incredible balance and lateral movement to control the range and angle as he pleased, getting off first and exiting out the side door. As Donaire became more and more dependent on a single punch, the easier it became for Rigo to read him and improvise and embellish on the way he set up his offense. By the mid rounds, it was clear Donaire had no idea what to do. He was hopping around, hoping Rigo would just give him an opening, but none came. His body language was that of a timid fighter with little hope. He looked uncharacteristically flat-footed, no doubt a result of Rigo’s confusing movement and Donaire’s objective to plant himself for a monster left hook. Rigo had success circling toward’s Donaire’s right hand for a few reasons; one was that the left hook was Donaire’s favorite weapon, and Rigo did well to avoid it; a second was that Rigondeaux was making himself small, and so the vertical angle was unavailable to the taller Donaire; a third is that southpaws often circle towards the rear hand to create space behind the opponent, so that when they do decide to throw there is ample space to step towards their right and accurately throw their left straight; a fourth is that Rigondeaux was just barely out of range, so he was close or far whenever he chose to be, and so because of this control of distance, any overreaching by the right hand (which was Donaire’s rear hand) would have given him an opening for a clean counter. Donaire’s right was never his first choice, and it was nearly non-existent in this fight. It’s also worth noting that Donaire’s head hunting was on full display in this fight, no doubt compounded by the fact that Rigondeaux’s body could only be reached of Donaire gave up his height even further by ducking down to reach it, and he was taking no such risk. A major point in this fight is that Donaire's counter left was useless. Rigo's “lazy jab” was protected by his control of distance and use of feints, as well as his natural ability to weave out towards his right under the left hook. He never once ran into it, another advantage to circling the "wrong" direction. There was one round-maybe the 9th or the 11th-where Rigondeaux landed on Donaire and escaped his left hook 3 times in a row simply by stepping out in perfect balance. He was always in position to throw, and the subtle precision of his movement was incredible to watch. Land the right hook inside first, step out. Measure with the jab, land the left straight, and weave out under the hook. In my opinion, the kind of left hook that would trouble Rigondeaux is the kind he doesn’t see coming due to crowding. The left hook is touted as a good punch to land on a southpaw, but if the fighter uses his upper body to lean for defense, it becomes much harder to get the range for it without the shot glancing off of the shoulder. In his last fight, Rigondeaux was wobbled by a left hook from Marroquin during a committed two-handed assault in the corner. Donaire would have done well to cut the ring off and committed to his combinations and thrown with Rigondeaux. Clearly Rigondeaux’s punches were far to taxing for him to force a slug-fest with him. Witness the difference in the shots below: This content is protected This content is protected There were few a few moments of where Donaire had success. His one clear round, the knockdown round, came after Donaire was landing a handful of right uppercuts preceded by left feints which caused Rigondeaux to duck towards his rear hand and into the trajectory of Donaire’s low-aimed punches. Catching Rigo like that only gave him the option to clinch, and that was where Donaire was able to muscle him back and catch him off balance with a hard left hook to the chin. Rigondeaux was hardly hurt, but more vulnerable than he’d been up to that point in the fight. Donaire let him go far to easily, failing to cut the ring off as he had been all night, and allowing Rigondeaux’s bluffing feints to keep him at bay and allow him the time to recover. In the round following (or might have been the moments preceding, can’t remember) Donaire landed his cleanest shots throwing 2 and 3 shots at a time. But Donaire simply can’t keep his forward momentum, he always has to stop. The short bursts were far too predictable for Rigondeaux, who only had to retreat and restart without fear of Donaire hunting him down beyond a 3-step advance. Rigondeaux forcing Donaire on the back-foot was genius. They knew he was going to have to go for the knockout, and they quickly destroyed any dreams they had of Donaire landing a hail-mary punch against a fighter possibly worn from using his legs the whole fight. That illusion was smashed by hard left hands which left Donaire too busy thinking about survival to press for the win. I think after this fight, Rigo's ring generalship can be said to be up there with the best of them today. He had absolute control. There were times he ducked down while smartly pressing against Donaire and swiveled around Donaire's waist and ended up practically behind him, unreal craft. With regards to Mares, that fight is hard to predict. I think Donaire is more suited to Mares’ style, having the size and fluidity to trade with Mares better between exchanges, and while Rigo could catch him clean coming in and use his momentum against him, I think in comparison to Donaire, Mares is much better at cutting off the ring, much better at throwing multi-punch combinations, much more consistent in his forward motion, and much more likely to invest in the body. He seems most vulnerable when backed up by counter-punchers who suddenly decide to stand their ground, and I’m not sure Rigo can sustain that kind of attack. A much bigger (but winnable) stylistic challenge for Rigondeaux that I’d love to see him take. The sky seems the limit for this Cuban stylist right now and I can’t wait to see what else he has to offer.
PS, if anyone comes across some GIF's that correspond with some of the points made, please share by quoting & posting :bbb
great analysis! Donaire should have applied more pressure and taken the chance of losing the slugfest. It was apparent after a few rounds that he lacked the output to win any rounds against a guy so equipt at the jab and counter. You have to apply pressure and output to win points against low output defensive fighters!
:thumbsup Exactly. If you can't out-speed him, then either make it a fight or make the guy lead. Rigo didn't seem to take any of the bait when Donaire decided to hang back a bit. :tong
It was a Masterclass preformance by Rigondeaux. He made a great boxer in Donaire, and Donaire is a great boxer, look second rate.
The only review of Donaire - Rigo worth reading. :good I don't think Donaire was doing too bad moving to his left and trying to knock down Rigo's jab hand. I think the main problem was Nonito was trying to make the fight interesting as well as win the fight, whereas Rigo was just trying to win. This was what Mikey alluded to as well. If Donaire moved around, landed light shots and worked his defense, the crowd would be booing both fighters and everyone would be on his case for trying to win the fight instead of knocking out Rigo. When one fighter has the burden of making the fight exciting to the crowd and the other fighter doesn't, the result is almost always obvious.
great read. been reading your material for awhile. are you in the business or just a very serious student of the game?
Nonito will always struggle with good lefties for the simple reason that his main arsenal is his left hook. Rigo southpaw stance + hunching to his left made it difficult for Nonito to land to Rigo's head. As been said before, the best weapon against southpaws is a good long straight right hand whcih Nonito does not have. JMM is a great example of fighters who can deal nicely with southpaws, he steps forward and throws the right hand from the center. Style-wise, JMM will beat up Rigo comfortably.
Bogo KSAB. :deal Who you got for Alvarez-Trout?? The time draweth nigh, the odds are evening, you gotta decide! I already locked in Trout at 2.85, you better not convince me I was wrong...:bart
First off, that was bang on the money and then some Bogo.I loved the way Rigo was able to throw Donaire off by not following the conventional southpaw trajectory,but it was obvious that ND needed to fein more to make that lead left hook count. Secondly,you need to send this post to Top Rank TV and add that you can speak Spanish because they badly need new commentators who can actually analyse a fight.