**ultimate rigondeaux vs donaire fight breakdown**

Defensive Responsibility

Alright, I'm going to start with what I believe is going to be the ultimate determining factor in this fight. Defense. First with Nonito.

Nonito Donaire's defense is his offense. And when Nonito is not on the offensive, you guessed it, his defense is not working. Nonito get's hit ALOT. Just look at his face in the Vazquez Jr. fight. Not to mention how Mathebula OUT LANDED, not outpunched, OUT LANDED, Donaire in their fight. Nonito Donaire has big issues blocking shots. And say what you want about Rigondeaux, he's probably the hardest puncher he has faced since Darchinyan. Rigondeaux is a sharpshooter, and will land with ease on such an open defense.

Here's his face after Vazquez...

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Here are the punchstats for the Mathebula fight...

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The problem is that people are so dazzled with Donair's speed and power, that they forget how fundementally unsound he is. When it comes to defensive responsibility, Donaire is lacking in a major way. To be P4P worthy you need the entire skill set, a good offensive arsenal paired with great defensive responsibility.

Rigondeaux

I'll keep it short and sweet with Rigondeaux. What's there to say? The man has great defense and is truly the ring general. It's not easy to land on him. Weak chin is a possibility with Rigondeaux, but its not easy to catch the man. I see a frustrated Nonito opening himself up even more trying to catch Rigo, which will leave him exposed to even more Rigondeaux sharp counters.

Peep the Rigondeaux footwork at 2:25, that is mean.
http://youtu.be/sPf7g9tb3W8?t=2m25s

A look back at the past

I've been studying up on Donaire, watching as many fights as I can find on him. I came across his fight with Kahren Harutyunyan. Here he faced a tough opponent, but with little power. This fight is from 2006, but if you watch the fight and how Donaire fights against him...you realize he has not changed his style very much. You can make the argument that its an old fight all you want, the fact of the matter is that it looks like Nonito has always looked. If you have the time, i recommend you watch it all, but if not please look at the 12th round especially. Here you can see some of the defensive holes i was talking about. This was an entertaining CLOSE fight. If the slower light punching Harutyunyan can land this much leather on Donaire, Rigo can land the double, and Rigo has the power to get him out of there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY_R1cPg6HA

Head to head comparison
Just going to go through each department and list, in my opinion, who holds the advantage

• Speed-Equal
• Combinations-Donaire
• Power-Donaire
• Defense-Rigondeaux
• Ring generalship-Rigondeaux
• Chin-Donaire
• Body attack-Rigondeaux
• Experience- Rigondeaux
• Footwork-Rigondeaux
• Size-Donaire

I give Rigondondeaux the advantage in experience beceause the man simply has more fights. You can say what you want about him am experience, the fact of the matter is that he wasnt fighting nobodies in his backyard, he was fighting world class elite fighters on the world stage and was dominate. He holds wins over Abner Mares and last night watched his fight with Maksim Khalikov, who holds a win over Gary Rusell jr, another excellent amateur fighter. Rigo has seen it all in the ams, far more style's that Donaire has. Has fought far more soutpaws than Donaire. Far more orthodox fighters than Donaire. Has fought far more boxers than donaire, power punchers, slickters, fast fighters you name it, Rigondeaux has seen it all.

In Conclusion

I think this is a great matchup between the two best 122 fighters at the weight, something you rarely get. I think Rigondeaux holds the advantage to take out Nonito. Everyone has been dazzled by the speed of donaire they overlook his technical flaws and have, in my opinion, wrongly put him in the p4p top 5. But i hope that those who have, are consistant with their beleifs, and put Rigo up there aswell when he detrhowns Donaire.

Anyways, can't wait for this amazing matchup, and if you didn't see my other thread, there is a $300,000 KO bonus, which i think is great for boxing. We need more of that.

 

If Donaire wants to keep the shots off of him, he needs to stay very busy and keep a sustained offensive attack to keep Rigo on the defensive. Donaire's best defense is his very impressive offense, which of course opens himself up to counters.

Another point to make is body punching....how good is Donaire's body? Can he take a good body blow? I think he's relatively untested in that department.

 

Man...I just can't get over those Mathebula punch stats. That's pretty crazy.

 

Very good point. I have a feeling Rigo is going to be more patient than Donaire tho

 

Very true. Just like the friggen Cardoba fight. I've watched that 3 times, how the hell that was a split decision is beyond me. Cardoba was getting rounds just because he was walking forward! Rigo was boring in that fight, but was outboxing the man easily.