He was confident in himself. Donaire had a look on his face as if Rigo threw a straight left to Rachel's belly. Also, he was willing to trade with Rigo whereas Donaire was very hesitant.
Most of the times, Big name fighters with a suspect chin reputation fight p4p fighters or Ko artist and they take it. Then they face a unknown fighter with an average ko ratio and get rocked. idk why
Donaire was hesitant to trade with Rigo, which would have given him that opportunity. He needed to try and press more exchanges to give himself the opportunity, or faint/throw something to make Rigo try and counter, then counter his counter.
For one thing Donaire looked absolutely horrible. Don't get me wrong, he deserved to lose after that performance, and a guy like Rigo can make anybody look bad, BUT Donaire did look bad. Dunno if it was the weight, he bought in to all the hype of himself, his wife being pregnant, or a mixture of all these factors. Donaire was LOOKING for the big punch. If he had thrown other punches he very well could of landed it. Instead, he follows Rigo all around the ring looking for the shot. I can't recall all of the Marroquin fight, but from what I remember he was more willing to throw, and he was willing to take a big counter and go down guns blazing. Also, again, dunno if it was Donaire looking bad, but Rigo looks to be getting better every fight he's in. Guy definitely trains hard, works on his craft, and is hungry right now.
Rigo cracked Donaire in the first RD and it ****ed with his mentality. Nonito has a solid chin no doubt IF there was ever any question about it SAT proved it. (I was in doubt... Just being honest) Marroquin did not have the same respect for Rigondeaux's power to start.
Mental preparation. He looked past marroquin and had no respect. He had huge respect for donaire and new what a victory meant.
Fighters like Rigo follow a variety of "scripts" where they know every dialogue, every word spoken by all the actors involved. When one of the actors says or does something off the script or improvises, it throws him off but usually his reflexes are good enough to catch it. In Marroquin's case, it threw him off badly just as Donaire turning southpaw to land the land hand did.
He hung in there long enough to find a weakness or an opening like Donaire did Rigo gets too comfy in there sometimes or just lapses and if your around long enough eventually you find it Marroquin is also different from Donaire in style attributes and size allowing him to do different things
