By Dexter Reyes
I’ve said it before and got some heat for it, but I strongly believe in Nonito Donaire, and I even went as far as to say he had the better overall boxing skills than his Filipino countryman Manny Pacquiao.
If you don’t believe me read my article titled “Nonito Donaire Is A Better Boxer Than Manny Pacquiao” dated January 12, 2011.
I want to say how good it feels to be proven right after all the naysayers laughed and discredited my opinion like it was garbage and I didn’t know what I was talking about.
Nonito Donaire amazed a lot of people last night when he defeated the very skilled and proven Mexican champion Fernando Montiel by a second round knockout. I thought Donaire would win but not that fast.
The way Nonito won that fight was with the same type of left hook counter punch he landed on Vic Darchinyan knocking him out.
When I watched Donaire for the first time, I saw potential and I saw talent, just like Roy Jones Jr. claimed to see Nonito a few years ago and said he was going to be great, I saw the same.
My only worry was that he may never get that chance to prove his greatness and to show off his talent to the world because of shady promoters, but Bob Arum of Top Rank promotions gave him that shot against Fernando Montiel. I used to be critical of Bob Arum and his in house fights, but Bob is a business man and he is doing whats best for him financially and he isn’t afraid to put his fighters in with tough fights as long as he promotes them both. I feel if Donaire was still with Gary Shaw, he would never be on the path he is on right now, Nonito would wind up like his brother Glenn a once promising fighter who went into obscurity.
I can’t say that Nonito is greater than Manny Pacquiao at this moment because Nonito doesn’t have the resume of opponents and accomplishments that Pacquiao does, but he has the potential to be great if he can move up in weight can clean out each division while unifying the titles.
Pacquiao has the record for winning 8 world titles in 8 different weight divisions, but Nonito can achieve greatness by unifying the titles at the talent rich 118, 122, and 126 weight divisions. If he can accomplish that it would make him an all time great.
Manny Pacquiao never cleaned out a division, he won titles at catchweights, and didn’t fight the best in his division, so if Nonito fights the best in those three weight divisions and unifies the belts at the same time he will go down as one of the greatest boxers of all time.
Nonito also has an inspiring story that kids in the suburbs and ghettos can relate too. All his life he was counted out, never looked at as a special person who would become great, he had to live in his older brother Glenn’s shadow, and all the negative things that people are saying about him concerning his family situation (which is nobodies business) but despite all of that, Nonito persevered and is on his way to becoming a superstar. Those haters can sit at home writing negative comments, while Nonito is doing something with his life and making a name for himself.
I think with the type of special talent that Nonito Donaire has and if Bob Arum and HBO get his name out there, he could be the next crossover star in boxing.
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