Not every one in the Alamodome Arena on Saturday night was happy with Nonito Donaire’s performance. In fact Judge Ruben Garcia scored the fight 115-112 in favor of Wilfred Vasquez Jr. That score card was widely criticized by pundits and fans alike, but that is the subject for another story. However, most ringside observers and those who watched it on television as well as two remaining judges saw Donaire put in another masterful and dominant boxing performance. At the end of the day Donaire won the fight and WBO super bantamweight title. Back in Oxnard, California I caught up with Donaire’s trusted Coach, Roberto Garcia to see what he thought about the fight.
“The first few rounds he was starting off the way the plan was going,” said Coach Garcia who was back to work on Monday at Garcia’s boxing Academy in Oxnard:” But then he hurt his hand, so he had to be more careful. He didn’t throw as many punches as I wanted him to. He didn’t tell me that his hands were hurting until like the tenth or eleventh round. So I was pushing him. I was pushing him to do more. I was telling him I need to see more. You are hurting him and you are letting him go. You are throwing one punch at a time, you are waiting too long; until he told me, you know what I hurt my hand. I can’t. That’s when I said OK, fight smart. Keep doing what you are doing. Even though he was still looking good and still hurting him, but we could have done a lot better. But things happen in boxing. His hand was broken and there is nothing we can do about that. The commission doctor there said it was broken in two pieces, so we are going to get x-rays this week. I still haven’t heard anything. Hopefully it’s nothing that bad. I remember when Brandon fought Acosta; the doctor told him his hand was broken, but then we went home and did the x-rays and nothing was broken; it was just bruised from punching. So I am hoping that we’ll get the same answer.”
Coach Garcia’s hope turned into reality; Donaire’s manager Cameron Dunking told RingTV.com earlier today that MRI revealed nothing broken in Nonito’s hand. That’s very good news for team Donaire.” Nonito’s hand is good,” said Dunkin. Nonito cut a vein that was rubbing against the wrap and created the swelling and a lot of pain. Everything should be fine in couple of weeks according to Dunkin.
Another person who was not thrilled with Donaire’s performance on Saturday night was promoter Oscar De La Hoya. He was convinced that his charge, Abner Mares would beat Nonito. I asked Coach Garcia what he thought about that.
“He is smart in boxing. He’s been around for a while,” said Garcia about De La Hoya:” But it’s all about promoters. They could think that. We think the opposite. Nonito’s got Cameron Dunkin and he is the one who makes those decisions for him. If that happens we will be ready. If not we’ve got other fighters in mind anyways.” Who they have in mind right now are two champions, Jorge Arce and then Nishioka, pretty impressive line up for the near future.
As far as Vasquez Jr, I believe Nonito wanted to impress and was looking for a knock out instead of boxing.
“We had a better plan,” confirmed Garcia:” But things had to change after he broke his hand in the first few rounds. He had to fight smarter. His hand was hurting him really bad, so he couldn’t throw as many punches. It changed. It had to change due to the fact that the hand was injured. I still give him a good grade. He pulled it off. He did what he had to do with a broken hand. Very few fighters are able to do something like that.”
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Contact Igor Frank at axident@pacbell.net or follow me on Face book or follow me (Fightmonger) on Twitter
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