Vic Darchinyan vs Nonito Donaire(spoiler)

[leelandk]

Did anyone else watch this fight? Donaire seemed to have no trouble taking Vic's powershots and countering beautifully with his left hand. He completely melted Vic to get the KO, a great one punch KO. Maybe Vic's power is overrated, I thought he was the p4p hardest puncher in boxing. Awesome fight though.

The post fight was funny too, Vic complaining he wasn't hurt and not understanding why the fight was stopped. But he was melted bad.

[Salvy_Mic]

Oh yeah, I saw this fight (although honestly, I really wanted to buy the UFC PPV, but I couldn't afford it and I couldn't find anyone else who wanted to watch it with me despite my concerted efforts to convince them that this was the card of the year).

Anyway, I was very impressed with Nonito Donaire, I had him winning 39-37 going into that 5th round, he was making Darchinyan look downright silly at moments. The moment I saw Nonito come out and pop Darchinyan at the very beginning of the fight, I knew something unexpected would happen, and the minute I saw him take a Darchinyan left hand and not go anywhere, I knew that Donaire would most likely win the fight. But that KO was the last thing I expected. Donaire was scoring with that short left hook over and over again, and I kept expecting him to get the right cross working, but lo and behold, he crumbles Darchinyan with yet another perfect left hook and took him out. He hit Darchinyan so hard the now ex-champ broke his nose on the canvas trying to beat the count. To me, this is the new Knockout of the Year, supplanting the one from last week with Darnell Wilson/Emmanuel Nwodo (Wilson destroying a badly hurt Nwodo with a left hook).

At the beginning of this year, the biggest fight at the lower weight classes (118 and lower) looked to be a slugfest showdown between Darchinyan and fellow brawler Jorge Arce. But now that Arce was completely schooled by Mijares and Darchniyan was KO'd by Donaire, everything got turned upside down. Naturally, you'd expect to see the clarion calls for Mijares/Donaire, but I don't see that happening quite yet. At this point in time, I think Mijares is too experienced and too polished for the young and very talented Donaire, but in another year, this could be a superfight for the little guys. I'm really looking forward to watching Donaire's career unfold, he looks like he can be a star, and coincidentally, he's from the same city as Manny Pacquiao.

So mark down July 7, 2007 as a great day for Filipino boxing, as fellow Filipino Florante Condes also won the IBF Strawweight title from Muhammad Rachman, travelling to Indonesia to do so, who by the way, is also from Pacquiao's hometown.

[Mykeee]

I'm really happy for Nonito since I know him personally, a lot of people doubted him, even some of his friends. Guy is really cool and humble, can't wait to celebrate with him!