Nonito Donaire vs. Jeffrey Mathebula - Saturday night fight thread

[BarlowBox]

Pavlik on the undercard vs Will Rosinsky as well as Vanes Martirosyan vs. Ryan Davis (if HBO shows it), this should be a decent night of boxing for us fans. The action starts @10:00 PM ET here in the States.

July 7
At Carson, Calif. (HBO): Nonito Donaire vs. Jeffrey Mathebula, 12 rounds, WBO/IBF junior featherweight unification; Kelly Pavlik vs. Will Rosinsky, 10 rounds, super middleweights; Vanes Martirosyan vs. Ryan Davis, 10 rounds, junior middleweights.

Mathebula is a 33 year old South African who's won a title or 2 and currently holds the IBF junior featherweight strap. Not many KO's in Mathebula's 31 fights, he's won 26 (KO 14) + lost 3 (KO 1) + drawn 2. I figure Nonito will hand this dude his ass within about 6 rounds.

cheers

There is nothing I've seen in Mathebula's resume or in his recent performances that says he's threat to Donaire in this bout. The only thing he has going for him is the fact that Donaire seems to either raise or lower the bar depending on the quality of opposition.

[Mars_ax]

Pavlik on the undercard vs Will Rosinsky as well as Vanes Martirosyan vs. Ryan Davis (if HBO shows it), this should be a decent night of boxing for us fans. The action starts @10:00 PM ET here in the States.

July 7
At Carson, Calif. (HBO): Nonito Donaire vs. Jeffrey Mathebula, 12 rounds, WBO/IBF junior featherweight unification; Kelly Pavlik vs. Will Rosinsky, 10 rounds, super middleweights; Vanes Martirosyan vs. Ryan Davis, 10 rounds, junior middleweights.

Mathebula is a 33 year old South African who's won a title or 2 and currently holds the IBF junior featherweight strap. Not many KO's in Mathebula's 31 fights, he's won 26 (KO 14) + lost 3 (KO 1) + drawn 2. I figure Nonito will hand this dude his ass within about 6 rounds.

cheers

There is nothing I've seen in Mathebula's resume or in his recent performances that says he's threat to Donaire in this bout. The only thing he has going for him is the fact that Donaire seems to either raise or lower the bar depending on the quality of opposition.

Good point, and Donaire hasn't looked impressive in his last couple fights.

BTW, welcome to the forum, this will be the "fight thread" for tonight's fights if you want to join in.
cheers

[BarlowBox]

Pavlik on the undercard vs Will Rosinsky as well as Vanes Martirosyan vs. Ryan Davis (if HBO shows it), this should be a decent night of boxing for us fans. The action starts @10:00 PM ET here in the States.

July 7
At Carson, Calif. (HBO): Nonito Donaire vs. Jeffrey Mathebula, 12 rounds, WBO/IBF junior featherweight unification; Kelly Pavlik vs. Will Rosinsky, 10 rounds, super middleweights; Vanes Martirosyan vs. Ryan Davis, 10 rounds, junior middleweights.

Mathebula is a 33 year old South African who's won a title or 2 and currently holds the IBF junior featherweight strap. Not many KO's in Mathebula's 31 fights, he's won 26 (KO 14) + lost 3 (KO 1) + drawn 2. I figure Nonito will hand this dude his ass within about 6 rounds.

cheers

There is nothing I've seen in Mathebula's resume or in his recent performances that says he's threat to Donaire in this bout. The only thing he has going for him is the fact that Donaire seems to either raise or lower the bar depending on the quality of opposition.

Good point, and Donaire hasn't looked impressive in his last couple fights.

BTW, welcome to the forum, this will be the "fight thread" for tonight's fights if you want to join in.
cheers

Thank you, and I'll be here scoring the fight along with you. I was at East Side and it's such a mess nowadays. So many trolls.

[fightscorecollector]

please post your RBR scores fror this fight on here and i will add to my fightscorecollector blog (in the signature below)


Im looking forward to seeing how Donaire deals with the massive height and reach differences tonight.

[Mars_ax]

Pavlik on the undercard vs Will Rosinsky as well as Vanes Martirosyan vs. Ryan Davis (if HBO shows it), this should be a decent night of boxing for us fans. The action starts @10:00 PM ET here in the States.

July 7
At Carson, Calif. (HBO): Nonito Donaire vs. Jeffrey Mathebula, 12 rounds, WBO/IBF junior featherweight unification; Kelly Pavlik vs. Will Rosinsky, 10 rounds, super middleweights; Vanes Martirosyan vs. Ryan Davis, 10 rounds, junior middleweights.

Mathebula is a 33 year old South African who's won a title or 2 and currently holds the IBF junior featherweight strap. Not many KO's in Mathebula's 31 fights, he's won 26 (KO 14) + lost 3 (KO 1) + drawn 2. I figure Nonito will hand this dude his ass within about 6 rounds.

cheers

There is nothing I've seen in Mathebula's resume or in his recent performances that says he's threat to Donaire in this bout. The only thing he has going for him is the fact that Donaire seems to either raise or lower the bar depending on the quality of opposition.

[B]
Good point, and Donaire hasn't looked impressive in his last couple fights.

BTW, welcome to the forum, this will be the "fight thread" for tonight's fights if you want to join in.
cheers

Thank you, and I'll be here scoring the fight along with you. I was at East Side and it's such a mess nowadays. So many trolls.

You'll like it here, Saddo and the mods run a tight ship, no troll problems.

[Mars_ax]

This card is set to start in about 20 minutes on HBO or a little after 10:00 PM ET, lets get ready to rumble.

Nonito Donaire vs. Jeffrey Mathebula, 12 rounds, WBO/IBF junior featherweight unification; Kelly Pavlik vs. Will Rosinsky, 10 rounds, super middleweights; Vanes Martirosyan vs. Ryan Davis, 10 rounds, junior middleweights.

[Mars_ax]

Alright, here we go, Kellerman, Jones Jr and Bob Papa calling the action for HBO, first up Kelly Pavlik vs. Will Rosinsky, so no Vanes, perhaps some highlights later.

[Kirkland Laing]

Pavlik not difficult to hit.

[Mars_ax]

Rosinsky came to fight, we'll see how long he can keep it up, I thought he won the 1st round.

[Spicoli]

Class beginning to seperare the two big time in 2nd. Rosinsky is so square and out of depth. That body is screaming in pain

[TitoFan]

A few thoughts after the Pavlik-Rosinsky fight:

1. Pavlik seemed so much bigger than Rosinsky. Not just taller... bigger. Same thing I thought for his previous fight against Scott Sigmon.

2. Harold Lederman is downright useless. Not really a conclusion from this fight, which was relatively easy to score. Just hearing his screechy voice and his useless comments.... it makes me feel that he's even more useless than Lampley, who may not be good at calling the action, but is good at carrying the telecast. Harold has no use whatsoever.

3. Pavlik's still too easy to hit. Had Rosinsky had more power, Kelly could've been in trouble at some point.

4. Rosinsky's girlfriend has a nice set of big jugs.

[Mars_ax]

A few thoughts after the Pavlik-Rosinsky fight:

1. Pavlik seemed so much bigger than Rosinsky. Not just taller... bigger. Same thing I thought for his previous fight against Scott Sigmon.

2. Harold Lederman is downright useless. Not really a conclusion from this fight, which was relatively easy to score. Just hearing his screechy voice and his useless comments.... it makes me feel that he's even more useless than Lampley, who may not be good at calling the action, but is good at carrying the telecast. Harold has no use whatsoever.

3. Pavlik's still too easy to hit. Had Rosinsky had more power, Kelly could've been in trouble at some point.

4. Rosinsky's girlfriend has a nice set of big jugs.

Agreed, Kelly gets hit too often, against a bigger puncher he would have been toast. I still liked what I saw from Kelly, Rosinsky was a hard nut to crack.
As for Rosinsky's G/F, jugs aren't everything, I like women with a little class.

[Rantcatrat]

There is nothing I've seen in Mathebula's resume or in his recent performances that says he's threat to Donaire in this bout. The only thing he has going for him is the fact that Donaire seems to either raise or lower the bar depending on the quality of opposition.

I'll provide you with a few reasons that Mathebula may be a threat to Donaire in this bout. They probably won't convince you, but hopefully, they'll add to your perspective going into the fight tonight.

Mathebula has faced good competition. Mathebula's division is a good one in South Africa and he's faced some decent boxers during his career. His loss to Caballero was rumored to be a debatable hometown decision (caveat: I haven't watched it) and Caballero is a top quality boxer, albeit inconsistent.

Style and Physical Characteristics. From what I understand, Mathebula has good upper body movement and throws an above-average number of punches. If there is one valid criticism of Donaire in his recent performances is that he has been concentrating too much on big knockout punches and less on combination punches and wearing his opponents down. If he takes his time too much in this one, he may find himself behind on points, and it has yet to be seen if he has carried his vaunted, game-changing power up with him to the junior featherweight division.

When have you seen Donaire face a significantly taller boxer? His biggest wins have come against aggressive shorter men. Mathebula is aggressive, but not in the bulldog way, and at 5'11, he is much taller than Donaire. He's also relatively athletic. Tall, athletic, those aren't qualities typically used to describe Donaire's opponents.

Cornermen: Mathebula also has a good trainer in Nick Durandt. He's probably the best trainer in South Africa. Maybe the best outside Europe, South America and the United States. Moreover, he has faced Donaire before when his fighter, Moruti Mthalene, was defeated by Donaire in 2008. I was at that fight (same night that Junior faced Vanda) and Mthalane gave a good account of himself prior to the stoppage, which if I recall correctly, was due to a cut, not a punch. The cards favored Donaire by one or two rounds at the time of the stoppage. Thus, Durandt has the experience to prepare Mathebula well for Donaire, although Robert Garcia will have done a good job with Donaire too.

Lastly, Cliff Rold, is picking Mathebula in the upset. I'm not going that far, as I see Donaire winning on points, but I don't think his opinion is beyond reason.

[BarlowBox]

No doubt, I thought Mathebula deserved the decision versus Celestino. But since then it seems he's regressed. After that fight I expected him to dominate the local competition. He hasn't. He's a long rangy guy, and that will serve him well tonight, but I can't see it being enough. I believe Donaire's left hook will be the ultimate issue for Mathebula. Mathebula has a bad habit of leaving his head high and chin out at times. His bean pole legs will be tested.