Donaire doesn't make adjustments.

He got so used to being the bigger man, along with being faster, more powerful, and overall the better athlete, that he has never had to make adjustments.

It's a shame that this day in age, guys don't know how to fight with aggressive defense, and don't understand utilizing movement by walking around the ring and baiting your opponent.

Walters is a big guy in the division, has a good punch, and appears to have a solid jaw. He's a tough fight for anyone, but due to his mechanical, upright style, could be out boxed by a good boxer or a guy with Donaire's athletic ability.

Donaire is actually a special fighter in terms of sheer ability, but he's limited in the way he utilizes his skillset. I don't know if that's due to his trainer not teaching him more than one style or Donaire being stubborn and not listening to instruction, but I'm leaning on the former.

To me, Garcia is an overrated trainer. He's worked with Maidana for several fights now, yet Maidana still punches like a caveman. He's had Rios for a very long time, yet Rios still hasn't developed any aggressive defense.

Obviously, Mikey is good, but if Mikey moves up a weight class, I believe he'll prove to be incredibly vulnerable because Garcia is not teaching his guys how to utilize more than one style.

Not every style works against every type of opponent, and this is especially true as you move up in weight. A durable guy, with a relatively average skillset like Walters for instance, can walk you down and beat you, even if you're the superior guy because you attempt to stand in front of him and beat him at his own game.

One thing I hear Teddy Atlas say repeatedly is that too many people throw a towel over their shoulder and call themselves trainers. It's sad when the best display I've seen in years of aggressive defense was a video of an old Italian guy, maybe in his sixties, beating the **** out of some ****y MMA fighter.

How does this happen?

 

It was a short fight, but Donaire's fight against Montiel was a pretty good example of this and Donaire's first fight with Darchinyan.

Donaire has great ability, but even in those fights, he was the bigger, stronger, and more athletic fighter by a significant margin.

I agree with the above post about him being mentally weak too. I think Rigo first exposed this, and Donaire has not fully recovered.

 

I doubt it. Rigo is content to box to a decision.

Rigo would never take on a guy like Mathebusa. Mathebusa would force Rigo to go outside of his comfort zone and be more aggressive or potentially lose a decision.

Mathebusa, with his long reach could keep Rigo at the end of his punches. How would Rigo react?

 

The guys you mentioned are no where near the same size as Mathebula.

They also fight with completely different styles, but it's funny you mention one guy that managed to knock Rigo down with a jab in a HIGHLY competitive fight and one guy that managed to hurt Rigo.

Rigo wasn't able to KO either of them. In fact, he barely won against Cordoba.