Nonito Donaire Soldifies Hall Of Fame Status With a Dominant Win Over Nordine Oubaali
A terrific matchup takes place in the bantamweight division at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California. WBC World Bantamweight champion Nordine Oubaali makes the third defense of the title against the WBC number one contender and lower-weight living legend, Nonito Donaire.
After a decorated amateur career that included competing in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic games, Oubaali turned pro in March of 2014 at the late age of 27 in his home country of France. A signature victory early in his career was a 12th round TKO over the rugged multiple-time world title challenger, Julio Cesar Miranda in December of 2016. The continued success propelled him into a match against Rau’shee Warren for the then-vacant WBC World Bantamweight title in January of 2019. It was a sloppy affair at times. However, Oubaali did enough to defeat Warren by a hard-earned unanimous decision to become a world champion.
He has successfully defended the title twice. In June of 2019, the Frenchman TKO’d Arthur Villanueva in six rounds. That was followed up with a decision win over Takuma Inoue in November of 2019.
Known as “The Filipino Flash”, Donaire’s resume is as decorated as any fighter in the sport. He also has universal respect from fans and pundits. The 38-year-old resident of Las Vegas won his first world title with a shocking, fifth-round TKO over then-IBF World Flyweight champ Vic Darchinyan. From there, he went on to win world titles at super flyweight, bantamweight and, super bantamweight divisions.
Donaire’s last outing was a dramatic, epic battle against current IBF/WBA ‘Super’ World 118-pound champion Naoya Inoue in November of 2019. Though he lost that fight by unanimous decision, Donaire gave “Monster” Inoue all he could handle. Even at this advanced stage of his career, the veteran still has something left in the tank.
Oubaali v Donaire is a fight-fan’s fight. While the defending champ is multifaceted, it would be wise of him to make this a distance fight. Donaire is not the athletic force of his prime years. Nowadays, he likes to use experience and guile to setup opponents for his vaunted left hook. Whoever can set the tone in this fight and implore their strategy will win. For those in the know, this is a very intriguing contest.
Oubaali’s (17-1, 12 KOs) best bet was to make this a boxing match. That was what he attempted to do in the opening round. However, Nonito Donaire (41-6, 27 KOs) is no ordinary fighter. This is someone who is as experienced as they come. As early as round two, you could see him starting to figure the champ out.
SCHOOL IS IN SESSION
The “Filipino Flash” began to land counter-straight right hands and left hooks. He had zoned in and you could just tell something even bigger was going to land.
Indeed, that happened in round three. With forty-five seconds to go in the round, Donaire cornered Oubaali and put him down with a left hook. At the bell, the Frenchman went down for the second time from another tremendous left hook. At that point, he was all but done.
ANY QUESTIONS NOW?
Showing the precision of an all-time great, Donaire stalked in the fourth, landing with ease. With seventy five seconds in the round, a left hook, right hand, left uppercut put Oubaali down for the third time in the fight. Hurt, battered, and beaten, the referee correctly waved a halt to the contest.
This was a history-making win for Donaire. He is now a three-time world bantamweight champion. What looked to be a close, competitive bout going in turned into a mismatch. If there is any doubt that Donaire is a future Hall of Famer, he showed it tonight with an awesome display of professionalism.
By: Michael Wilson Jr.
