The highly-anticipated super bantamweight title unification showdown of Nonito "The Filipino Flash" Donaire and Guillermo "El Chacal" Rigondeaux was held on April 13 (April 14 in Manila) at the Radio City Music Hall in New York.
Rigondeaux beat the Filipino Flash after 12 rounds of boxing. All three score cards (114-113; 115-112; 116-111) went against Donaire, losing the WBO junior featherweight belt to the WBA champion from Cuba. Donaire's new record is now 31-2, 20 KOs while that of Rigondeaux improved to 12-0, 8 KOs.
Rigondeaux was the more engaging boxer during the first two rounds but Donaire never let his guards own and landed jabs on the Cuban. The 3rd and 4th rounds were dominated by Donaire as he did great works in the body and landed his straight punches.
Rounds 5 and 6 saw Rigondeaux playing a bit dirty by grabbing Donaire's head. "El Chacal" scored a huge left in the head during the sixth round. Rigondeaux kept on running away from Donaire on the 7th and 8th rounds and the crowd started to become frustrated. Donaire was still the aggressor on the next round against the counter puncher rival.
In the 10th round, Donaire landed a left hook which made the Cuban slipped into the canvas. He then knocked Rigondeaux down with a straight right, arousing the crowd once more.
An exchange of big punches and jabs followed in the last two rounds. Rigondeaux poked Donaire in the eye resulted into a cut during the beginning of the 12th round. Even with Donaire's swelling eyes, Rigondeaux did not impressed more in the last round. However, Rigondeaux came on to be the best at 122 pounds.
Dubbed as "Domination," the Donaire-Rigondeaux battle saw 5 out of 8 knockouts in the undercard bouts. The result of the main event was regarded as controversial since scores were wide despite Donaire scoring a knock down in the 10th round.
Last year, Nonito Donaire did an impressive undefeated (4-0) run beating the likes of Toshiaki Nishioka and Jorge Arce since moving up to 122 pounds. The battle with Rigondeaux was his fourth title defense in an attempt to unify the WBO and WBA super bantamweight world titles.
Rigondeaux may seem less experienced than Donaire based on pro record but the Cuban amatuer legend is similarly dangerous. In fact, Rigondeaux has had one of the most impressive amateur records in history scoring more than 400 victories. This two-time Olympic gold medalist (2000 and 2004) was the star of the powerhouse Cuban national team for years.
