How will history remember Donaire? Should he be remembered as a great in the lower divisions, or as a weight cheat who was basically a featherweight beating up flyweights? One things for sure, his power can never be denied. Truly a devastating puncher with the left hook. He certainly wasnt as skilled as many of the greats, however. He's gonna make the HOF one day, and certainly, theres much LESSER fighters in the Hall than Donaire, but I think he fell short of the all time great expectations many had for him.
I never expected Donaire to be an all time great, I try not to make those judgements, that's for history to say. I will say that I expected more from him than he delivered. From a fly on the wall perspective, he got high on himself early and rather than work on polishing his skills, he came to rely on his power.
It was after he destroyed Montiel that he totally fell in love with his power, and abandoned all science in his approach.
I think he will be remembered as one of the nicest and genuine guys in boxing. Not sure where he ranks amongst atgs but he was a top operator for sure.
My partner in the boxing game convinced Jackie Kallen to sign the Donaire brothers after many others had passed on them.
He was brilliant but not an all-time great. I’m disappointed he regressed technically once he hit a certain point and he was at an age where he had a chance to become great. He has a lot of good stuff though. Lineal at flyweight, lineal at bantamweight both besting excellent champions in Darchinyan and Montiel. Unified at 122 and beat some good fighters there like Mathebula and Nishioka. He was BWAA FOTY in 2012 too and has some good numbers and longevity. I think his career as a chance of growing over time.
Donaire is definitely a HOF fighter who jumped up too many weight classes. From flyweight to bantamweight he was a dominant beast. At his best he was a great counter puncher with speed and power and his boxing ability was exceptional. It wasn’t until he moved up to super bantamweight that he became more lackluster and left hook happy that he forgot to set up his shots, plus he was never a good finisher when he had an opponent in trouble. It was only a matter of time when someone exploited his bad habits. Since then I think his boxing skills had declined, which is a shame. With all that said I think Donaire has had a great boxing career and a great resume despite his flaws later on. Probably not ATG. If he somehow wins the bantamweight tournament that might very well put him closer to ATG status.
Like others have pointed out, he fell in love with his power, and after a while his success made him seem to take training for granted as well. That said, he still accumulated some seriously impressive accomplishments. He won belts in multiple divisions and he wasn't fighting slouches when he did it. Throw in awards from Ring Magazine for KO of the Year, Upset of the Year, and Fighter of the Year for bonus points. After he burst on the scene like a damn supernova by kayoing Vic Darchinyan in amazing fashion and then chewing through Luis Maldonado who was like 38-1 or something, his career briefly seemed to regress. He fought Moruti Mthalane, Manuel Vargas, and Hernan 'Tyson' Marquez and a few other guys who were low profile. Those wins eventually came to look a lot better. First, Manuel Vargas pissed hot for steroids, making that win more impressive. Then both Mthalane and Marquez won titles and became quite well respect champions.
