By Chuy Marco
Okay, I admit it, I was wrong, my prediction on the Fernando Montiel vs. Nonito Donaire fight was wrong, but there are question marks that must be raised concerning the outcome of this fight.
I give credit to Nonito Donaire, he was one of the few Filipinos who came out on top in a big fight against a legit Mexican boxing champion, the only other Filipino to triumph against Mexican legends is Manny Pacquiao.
The KO of Montiel was very scary and almost unreal. Donaire’s left hook was very strong and powerful like he had iron in his gloves. I found something very funny about this fight and have to wonder if the win is credible. Montiel came in heavier and looking like a miniature Mr. Olympia bodybuilder, this training to put muscle mass could have hurt Montiel and made him muscle bound and very stiff in the fight. He probably believed he needed to bulk up because people were saying he was so much smaller than Donaire, but Donaire was actually lighter and had a shorter reach than Montiel.
I’m not going to use that as an excuse to discredit Donaire because that was just a poor training choice by Montiel’s strength and conditioning coach. Rather than trying to get a size advantage on Donaire, Montiel’s team should have just stuck to their regular boxing routine and focus more on Fernando’s superior boxing skills and not building muscle.
My main concern with this fight has to do with the suspicion of steroids and other undetectable performance enhancing drugs. Manny Pacquiao refused to take blood tests against Floyd Mayweather Jr., but Nonito is willing to take blood tests anytime to prove he is clean. This sounds too good to be true, and usually if it sounds too good there is something up. All of a sudden this skinny Filipino guy Nonito Donaire hit a durable champion like Montiel in his head so hard that he left a dent in his skull, and Donaire’s fight before this one, he broke Volodymyr Sydorenko’s nose and face badly dropping him multiple times and stopping him in the 4th round leaving him with his face squirting blood.
Nonito is working with the notorious BALCO founder Victor Conte, the man who got served time in the pen for giving athletes like Sugar Shane Mosley and Olympic gold medalists Marion Jones, designer steroids that were undetectable by drug tests.
The suspicions will always linger; did Nonito Donaire have an unfair advantage coming into his fight with Montiel? And without those chemical supplements given to Donarie by Victor Conte could he still beat a superior Mexican fighter like Fernando Montiel? Basically, did he need Victor Conte “extra boost” to win and without Conte would he still win against Montiel?
If you wanted your legacy to be clean and never questioned why align yourself with a man who was found guilty of making undetectable steroids and giving them to athletes so they could cheat?
If anything, Nonito brought this suspicion upon himself when he partnered up with a man like Victor Conte. When you get to a certain level you have to be careful who you associate yourself with.
Big time boxing fan. Grew up in East Los, and been an avid follower of the sport and the legends like Julio Cesar Chavez, Vicente Saldivar, Salvador Sanchez, Carlos Zarate, Erik Morales, Ricardo Lopez and Juan Manuel Marquez just to name a few.
Current favorite boxers: Canelo Alvarez, Mikey Garcia.