Nonito Donaire Vs Omar Andrés Narváez Countdown.

Saturday night, from the WaMu Theater, a small, you guessed it, theater which is a mere fragment of the more historically relevant Madison Square Garden, the high-flying pound for pound contender Nonito Donaire makes the first - and more than likely only - defence of his WBC and WBO bantamweight titles against Argentine stylist Omar Narvaez.

It's a fight I'm frothing at the mouth over, pitching two of my favourite fighters against each other, one of which - Donaire - I believe to be the future #1 fighter in the entire sport. It's considered to be a bit of a mismatch, not due to lack of ability on Omar's part but due to the mass disparity in size.

There's a lot of merit in those beliefs, but it's still not enough to dissuade me from making this thread through pure excitement.:yep


The Champion - Nonito Donaire

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''The Filipino Flash''

The Ring #4 Pound For Pound
The Ring #1 at Bantamweight
ESB's #1 Bantamweight

Record: 26(18)-1
Height: 5'7
Reach: 68''
Age: 28

Notable Wins:
Fernando Montiel
Vic Darchinyan
Moruti Mthalane
Volodymyr Sydorenko
Hernan Marquez


For someone who ''literally pissed my pants'' in his first ever amateur fight as a young child, Nonito Donaire has had unprecedented success in the professional game. A consensus top 5 fighter in the entire sport and a three weight ''world'' champion with some of the sports best names from the lower weight classes on his record, it's frightening to think that his career has actually stalled, and that it's anticipated that the best is yet to come from the man originally from Talibon in the Philippines(has lived in California from a very young age).

But indeed that is the case, despite announcing his arrival in 2007 with an equilibreum-debunking left hook on Vic Darchinyan and racking up some more than decent wins, there's always a feeling that Nonito could've done a lot more in this time, promotional wranglings amongst other things restricting him to 9 fights in those 4 years.

The magnitude of that Darchinyan decimation cannot be understated. Having watched boxing's brash and current ''Raging Bull'' break his brother's jaw only 10 months before, it was a chance to exact revenge as well as inject life into a career that had yet to take off, a loss in his second fight and no victories of note on his record, ending the warpath of a 28-0 Darchinyan was remarkable enough, dispatching the Aussie-Armenian in 5 with the knockout of the year was astonishing.

Going on to take on a fighter who had only been defeated once in 9 nine years going in(that loss being to Darchinyan) in Luis Maldonado was an acceptable opponent, and one Donaire flourished against, dominating Maldonado to an even greater extent than Darchinyan had and stopping him in eight rounds. This is where the frustration began however, expected to build on this with further big fights and wins, 11 months of inactivity followed, and when it concluded it was against a fighter, who while very good and a difficult proposition for him, did not have any name recognition in Moruti Mthalane. The South African stymied Nonito for the 6 rounds it lasted, taking at least 2 rounds off of him with his water tight defense and awkward brand of counter-punching before wilting under sustained pressure just as it seemed he was beginning to come on even stronger.

Another irritating two years ensued, beating fighters who were either fringe contenders(Manuel Vargas, Rafael Concepcion) or opponents who had yet to prove their worth upon getting it on with Donaire(Raul Martinez, Hernan Marquez). Even if he never had a chance in their, Volodymyr Sydorenko was a welcome change of opponent for Donaire. Proven class at a high level with good, deserved wins in his own right, his experience was a nice constrast to the relative inexperience Donaire was faced with before. What was not nice was what Nonito did to the Ukrainian's face, turning it into a bloody, throbbing, crimson mess, annihilating his adversary in a four brutal rounds filled with venomous left uppercuts, snapping jabs, and nose-exploding right hands. Sydorenko was slightly past his best, but nevertheless, he'd only ever been beaten in very close fights and represented a solid test for Donaire, he was overwhelmed and dismantled sensationally. A solid fighter fundamentally, lacking in the physical attributes such as speed power, even size, he couldn't deal with the explosiveness and killer instinct brought by Donaire.

Then came what we were all waiting for, a genuine(on paper) 50-50 fight against a fellow pound for pound contender in the brilliant Fernando Montiel. An intelligent fighter with immense power who thrives off setting traps and dining on the mistakes of his opponent, KO-Chulito represented a task that was arguably more arduous than the one that Darchinyan offered. Looking at what actually transpired you'd have thought it was merely a warm up for a big fight, Montiel attempted to set traps but couldn't even begin to plan them, consistenly beaten to the punch and being out-manouvered by the magnificent Fillipino. Even when the Mexican dropped his left hand intentionally in the hope that Donaire would lead with the right hand, he was caught by the right hand. All this concluded in the second, Nonito unleashing a left hook that was actually superior to the one that obliterated Darchinyan, denting Montiel's skull in the process.

Another annoying period of waiting ensued, as he attempted to flee from his Top Rank deal, and jump ship to Golden Boy. Donaire felt a move to Golden Boy would further enhance his career but Bob Arum took the matter to court, where it was ruled that Top Rank’s current contract was still binding, thus preventing Golden Boy from doing any business with the Filipino. There has been pretty much rampant speculation for months on end, but it was finally confirmed that he's officially with Top Rank for the long haul, and is ready to come back.


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgMJHpFQpb8[/ame]

 

Part 2


The Challenger - Omar Narvaez

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''El Huracán''

ESB's #1 Super-Flyweight
Was The Ring's also but has been removed upon ascent in weight.

Record: 35(19)-0-2
Height: 5'3
Reach: ?
Age: 36

Notable Wins:
Cesar Seda
Carlos Tamara
Luis Alberto Lazarte
Rayonta Whitfield

A national idol, this is Omar Narvaez's first fight in America, and the biggest fight of his 11 year career to date. Often chastised for sitting on his title in his homeland on not fighting the type of opposition that could potentially wrest it from him, he'll need to rise to the occasion here against the type of fighter he's never encountered before.

A decorated and successful amateur his honours include winning Gold at the Pan-American games, Bronze in the 1997 World Championships, Silver in the 1999 World Championships as well as making the second round in both the Atlanta and Sydney Olyimpics. On top of this he holds the distinction of being the first fighter who took part in the latter tournament to win a world title in the professional game.

His is a career that mirrors Donaire's in terms of frustration. But while Donaire's was involuntary, Omar's was voluntary, content to stay in Argentina and only take on an adversary of any note every few years or so while racking up decent paydays in his homeland. Those who have also watched him in detail will echo my sentiments, that he is without doubt a fine fighter, a pugilist of sheer class, that hasn't taken the necessary challenges to prove just how fine a fighter he could be.

He has a ledger scattered with decent, semi-world class wins, but only stand out performances rather than the stand out victories of his opponents. He does have some achievements of decent historical importance though, as well as that aforementioned accomplishment, he also possesses the record of having the most ''world'' title defences of any Argentinian in history. This record beginning in 2002 in his inaugral defence against countryman and future ''world'' champion Luis Alberto Lazarte - after beating Adonis Rivas to become WBO champion at flyweight - and continuing with decent scalps in Andrea Sarritzu, Alexander Mahmutov, Carlos Tamara, Rayonta Whitfield.

After stopping Omar Soto in his final defence at 115lbs he stepped up to super-flyweight, winning the vacant WBO belt against Everth Briceno and defending it on three occasions against Victor Zaleta, Cesar Seda, and William Urina. The Seda bout is arguably his most impressive outing to date, a then-35 year old fighting the very encouraging Puerto Rican who was almost 10 years his junior who dwarfed him in similar fashion to what Donaire will. After some early difficulty with the combinations and speed of Seda, he quickly figured his man out and put on an absloute clinic on how to beat the bigger man.

A great reader of range, he was able to evade Cesar's shots with intuitive upper body movement before jumping in with what is his custom, sharp, accurate counters thrown from awkward angles. Left hands over the top and right hooks thrown from the hip began to land with increased regularity down the stretch while his defensive capabilities(without question among the best in the sport) were in full effect, blocking whenever Seda got close, before slipping nimbly out of range and dodging all desperate attacks launched at him from a desperate challenger.

After beating late replacement William Urina, he called out all of the top fighters at 118lbs, a bizarre time to want fights he seemingly wanted nothing of before, but a welcome change nonetheless. Nursing a broken hand, the opportunity to climb another division and take on Donaire came calling, a chance he has taken with open arms, which makes you question whether it was him or his handlers that have restricted his progress all this time.



[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m93_U3Po0kE[/ame]


The Fight


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz7pTSJn5AI[/ame]


Make no mistake however, Narvaez may be an excellent fighter, but he's also an extremely undersized one. Consider that Donaire is expected to rise as high as featherweight, if not higher, and that Narvaez was generally looked upon as a not so large super-flyweight tells you all you need to know about the task he's faced with.

Both have skills in abundance. They both possess the ability to adapt to whatever style they are faced with and make the fight be fought in a way that favours them. Narvaez lacks the lightning speed of Donaire, nor does he wield a modicum of the power(though he had enough at 115lbs to keep you honest), what he relies on is his wealth of knowledge in the ring, his superb defense and tendency to always find the target have got him to this point.

Donaire has all the accuracy and timing you could hope for as well as the neon aspects like his insane speed and explosive power. He's got the size on Narvaez that Seda has, but add to that a hell of a lot more talent(that's not a knock on Seda, who is a very good fighter in his own right, Nonito's just on another plain). It's hard to see anyone at all beating Donaire right now, and it promises to be tremendously tough and possibly painful night for the Argentinian.

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has some of the abilities to bring out Donaire's flaws in my opinion. I think he'll get stopped, but it'll be down to the sheer size difference for the most part I think(of course coupled with the fact that Donaire is an excellent fighter, but my point is that I don't think Nonito would blow him away if they were even close to equal physically).

Omar will make Donaire lead, he'll force him to because he's an intelligent enough fighter to know that he cannot under any circumstances try to force the issue, because that's a sure fire way to getting yourself splattered across the ring like Montiel and even Sydorenko. He'll make Donaire attempt to seize the initiative rather than having it handed to him, and he will keep him continually turning and turning.

That's where he can get a little bit of joy, because Donaire is often jab-neglectant for a while, and he'll try to find you with single, immaculate shots that realistically don't happen that often, especially when faced with someone as defensively responsible as

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. There'll be brief periods where Donaire won't look all that, of course the problem will then be the fact that

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won't be so assiduous offensively because of how big a risk he'd be taking if he were to be, so there will be periods where Omar will be doing a great job in nullifying The Flash, but won't be too eager to take advantage of it.

I think he'll do better than most anticipate, but will ultimitely be stopped some time after the 8th. Better offensively, quicker, stronger, much, much bigger, Donaire's just got too much in his favour going in. I forcast the type of fight where people will critisise Donaire for engaging in a mundane encounter, rather than acknowledge that the Argentinian was the reason that it transpired that way, and giving him praise for doing so to one of the best out there.


Anyhow, your thoughts would be EXTREMELY appreciated by myself. It's a better fight than many have given it credit for I think, hopefully I've managed to convince you of that.:yep

 

Actual replies!:scaredas:

Seriously though, this is more like 2 threads in 1, a "Donaire is a beast" thread mixed with a "Hey, this guy's really good" thread.

I'm always riddled with anticipation whenever either of these guys fight, so for them to be taking each other on is a bit of a win/lose for me, and it's not hard to work out why.:yep

Narvaez is really good though, and he is a young 36, so age shouldn't really be a factor. I'd love it if these two were the same size, as it stands I just think Omar will do the best he can do, but it of course won't be enough.