Nonito Donaire vs. Jeffrey Mathebula - Saturday night fight thread

[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.

[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.

[shza]

Not a bad night of boxing, (except for the judging) Pavlik & Donaire both had tough fights, but came away winners. It remains to be seen how Kelly will do at SMW, but I hope he does well, many among us have had issues with Alcohol, it would be great to see him win another title. As for Donaire, there should be some great fights ahead for him, 122 & 126 are loaded.

I didn't have as much of a problem with the Donaire-Mathebula scoring as I have in the past with other fights because the right guy won. Mathebula slapped a lot with his punches and moved away from the action the entire fight. Is it me or has Donaire become so enamored by his power that he constantly looks for the big punch, forgetting combination punching and effective body work? Clearly, he is explosive, but should he not consider setting those game-ending punches up more? I still favor Rigo if they fought. I would like to see Donaire v. Nishioka or Donaire v. Mares.

Definitely agree with the criticism of Donaire here. He's becoming less fun to watch as a result.

[DavilaJones]

This is slightly off topic but:

Do you guys remember the fight between Martinez and Macklin? Of how the HBO commentators were constantly criticizing Martinez and even on air they said "oh Max Kellerman just texted me I think Nonito donaire is P4P #3"

Asides from the utter disrespect for the two fighters in the ring what shocked me was why they were doing that. Do you gents believe Nonito is a bigger cash cow?