Nonito Donaire vs. Jeffrey Mathebula - Saturday night fight thread

[shza]

Just finished watching. I thought Donaire won 8 rounds to 4. I scored it 116-111. I gave Mathebula 2 and 3 and then a couple in the second half of the fight -- I think 7 and 8. The judges' scorecards were definitely wide but I thought the HBO guys were giving Mathebula more credit than he deserved, given how pitter-pat all of his output was. Decent fight.

Pavlik would get destroyed by Froch, much less Ward. He should be aiming for Arthur Abraham - that's more his level.

[Rantcatrat]

Just finished watching. I thought Donaire won 8 rounds to 4. I scored it 116-111. I gave Mathebula 2 and 3 and then a couple in the second half of the fight -- I think 7 and 8. The judges' scorecards were definitely wide but I thought the HBO guys were giving Mathebula more credit than he deserved, given how pitter-pat all of his output was. Decent fight.

Pavlik would get destroyed by Froch, much less Ward. He should be aiming for Arthur Abraham - that's more his level.

The criticism on Pavlik is correct and exaggerated at the same time. Max Kellerman made the point during the broadcast, but think about it, who has he lost to? Future Hall of Famer, light heavyweight Bernard Hopkins and p4p Sergio Martinez. Clearly, Ward and Dirrell would be bad match-ups for him, but I like the Froch fight. Pavlik would be the underdog, likely lose, but you know going into it that it'll be a good action fight. Pavlik did finish a prime Jermain Taylor faster than Froch finished a past-his-prime Jermain Taylor, at Froch's weight, mind you. And a fight with Bute ain't half bad either. Bute could end his career, or Pavlik could end Bute's and earn a fight with Froch.

[shza]

Just finished watching. I thought Donaire won 8 rounds to 4. I scored it 116-111. I gave Mathebula 2 and 3 and then a couple in the second half of the fight -- I think 7 and 8. The judges' scorecards were definitely wide but I thought the HBO guys were giving Mathebula more credit than he deserved, given how pitter-pat all of his output was. Decent fight.

Pavlik would get destroyed by Froch, much less Ward. He should be aiming for Arthur Abraham - that's more his level.

The criticism on Pavlik is correct and exaggerated at the same time. Max Kellerman made the point during the broadcast, but think about it, who has he lost to? Future Hall of Famer, light heavyweight Bernard Hopkins and p4p Sergio Martinez. Clearly, Ward and Dirrell would be bad match-ups for him, but I like the Froch fight. Pavlik would be the underdog, likely lose, but you know going into it that it'll be a good action fight. Pavlik did finish a prime Jermain Taylor faster than Froch finished a past-his-prime Jermain Taylor, at Froch's weight, mind you. And a fight with Bute ain't half bad either. Bute could end his career, or Pavlik could end Bute's and earn a fight with Froch.

Sure, but then following those two losses, he gave up possibly the remainder of his prime and did nothing good for himself physically for the next two years. I don't think we're going to see the version of Pavlik that beat Taylor ever again. I was thoroughly unimpressed with him last night. He got hit a ton and did not look like he had the heavy hands he used to have, even putting aside the fact he's fighting 8 pounds up.

+1 on Hulk's Bika suggestion, btw. That's a nice choice.

[Mars_ax]

Just finished watching. I thought Donaire won 8 rounds to 4. I scored it 116-111. I gave Mathebula 2 and 3 and then a couple in the second half of the fight -- I think 7 and 8. The judges' scorecards were definitely wide but I thought the HBO guys were giving Mathebula more credit than he deserved, given how pitter-pat all of his output was. Decent fight.

Pavlik would get destroyed by Froch, much less Ward. He should be aiming for Arthur Abraham - that's more his level.

That's about how I scored it, 116-112, Mathebula was landing an occasional decent shot and countering well at times, but a lot of his punches were weak jabs that missed the mark. The more effective power punches were primarily coming from Donaire.

As for Pavlik, he may not be quite ready yet for the big dogs @168, I say stay busy like he has been, and work on not getting hit so much. I respect Kelly for putting his life back together, hopefully his story has a happy ending, he's a really likable dude.

[Hulk]

Just finished watching. I thought Donaire won 8 rounds to 4. I scored it 116-111. I gave Mathebula 2 and 3 and then a couple in the second half of the fight -- I think 7 and 8. The judges' scorecards were definitely wide but I thought the HBO guys were giving Mathebula more credit than he deserved, given how pitter-pat all of his output was. Decent fight.

Pavlik would get destroyed by Froch, much less Ward. He should be aiming for Arthur Abraham - that's more his level.

Same score I had it. Mathebula was pretty fast, had good defense and a good jab, but never really put any steam on his punches. There were all fast slapping shots. Max was trying to make it appear closer than it was, he did the same thing with the Pavlik fight.

Pavlik looked pretty good I thought, not great. He did a good job though against a crafty, faster, younger man.

I want to see Pavlik vs. Bika !

And I wanna watch Crank Yankers !

[IamInuit]

Scored it 116/112 Donaire and thought the official call to wide. Donaire is starting to pick up some bad habits. He seems to be looking for the highlight reel and watching himself. Somebody is going to read this and time it.

[Mars_ax]

Scored it 116/112 Donaire and thought the official call to wide. Donaire is starting to pick up some bad habits. He seems to be looking for the highlight reel and watching himself. Somebody is going to read this and time it.

Yep, Donaire is moving up in weight and starting to fight some pugs who can really bang, if Mathebula had better power, Nonito would have been in deep shit last night.