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Tonight, boxing fans are in store for another explosive spring battle. Heating up the night, “The Filipino Flash”, Nonito Donaire (31-1-0 20 KO’s) will look to drill his way past former amateur sensation Guillermo Rigondeaux (11-0-0 8 KO’s) in a WBO, WBA and lineal world title collision.
There isn’t a single dedicated fight-fanatic in the world who wasn’t anticipating this one.
Donaire is a 30 year old rising Filipino star, and three division world champion. Rigondeaux, the cream of the crop of an enticing Cuban amateur pack, is looking to prove legitimacy his title reign with the biggest victory of his career.
Rigondeaux is a sharp southpaw in the physical shape and prime of his life. Many are predicting he will pull the upset on Saturday night.
An agile fighter of his sort is freshly made to defeat a boxing “chess master” in Donaire, who is known for aggressively pursuing and outsmarting every opponents move.
At 32 years old, the theory is blunt for Rigondeaux – he must hurry. He stretched his amateur career on past 300 fights. When he finally defected from Cuba, many questioned his ability in the ring at world level. Now it is time to put all hands on deck and face tests of this level.
Donaire also may not be a spring chicken at 30; in the lighter divisions of the boxing world that is. He seized big knockout victories over Vic Darchinyan, Jorge Arce, Moruti Mthlaine, Volodymyr Sydorenko, Tyson Marquez and Fernando Montiel through his widening career and needs to get in some good work in the coming years.
That starts with shocking Rigondeaux.
Rigondeaux’s underestimated defense will play a factor in this fight, but will an uninspired retreat cause him to lose his lead on the score cards… or will one massive left hook change it all for the San Leondro residing Donaire?
That will depend. Will Donaire make it rough, but careful? Smart, but aggressive? My answer is yes. But one can never be sure – as one mistake is punishable by knockout in the house of Guillermo Rigondeaux.
Whatever happens, tune in live on HBO’s World championship boxing from 11:00 PM EST/8:00 PM PST. Undercard bouts featuring top rank-top ranked prospects Seanie Monaghan, Glen Tapia, Felix Verdejo, Mikael Zewski and Jesse Hart can be viewed from 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST on Top Rank Promotions streaming host Toprank.tv
Corey Quincy is a boxing writer at Saddoboxing.com and his blog Blboxing.com. Like him on Facebook at Boxing Legends. Follow him on Twitter at Quincyboxingfan.
