By Ian S Palmer
Nonito Donaire will step back into the ring on Saturday, November 9 when he meets Vic Darchinyan in a long-awaited rematch at the American Bank center in Corpus Christi, Texas. The scheduled 10-round junior featherweight bout can be seen live all across North America on the HBO Network. The two first met back in 2007 with Donaire winning by a tremendous one-punch knockout.
At the time of their first meeting Darchinyan was regarded as one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world and was an undefeated champion. However, Donaire derailed him and the ‘Filipino Flash’ became an overnight sensation. Since then, Donaire has won titles in multiple divisions while Darchinyan has struggled slightly.
Donaire, who hails from the Philippines, but now resides in California, will enter the ring with a record of 31-2 along with 20 Kos. Darchinyan fights out of California as well, but is originally from Armenia and has also fought out of Australia in the past. He comes into the fight at 39-5-1 with 28 Kos to his name. Donaire has won titles in four different weight divisions, but was given a boxing lesson by Cuba’s Guillermo Rigondeaux in his last bout.
Donaire is trying to regain his momentum and confidence and feels there’s no better way to do so than to take on a tough, name opponent and earn a stoppage. Darchinyan of course is looking to avenge his loss to Donaire from half a dozen years ago. However, he’s 37 years old now and hoped he would have gotten a rematch a lot sooner.
However, Darchinyan still has good power and an awkward southpaw style that causes trouble for most of his opponents. The only fighters to beat him have all been world champions. Along with losing to Donaire, he’s also been beaten by Joseph Agbeko and Abner Mares by close decisions and by decisions to Anselmo Moreno and Shinsuke Yamanaka.
But with Donaire having already stopped Darchinyan in their first bout, it’s easy to see why he’s favoured and will enter the ring as the more confident of the two. Donaire is seven years younger at the age of 30 and his last bout was the worst of his career and it’s possible that he could now be on the downslide of his career. He’ll certainly be motivated for this fight to prove to the boxing world that this isn’t true.
So what we have here is a fight between two highly-motivated boxers and that should make for an exciting tilt. Darchinyan may feel that the first meeting between the two was a fluke and Donaire just happened to catch him with a once-in-a-lifetime punch. Well, now’s the chance for him to prove it. Donaire still has to be wary of Darchinyan’s power and vice versa. This bout could be over suddenly if one of them connects right on the jaw of their opponent.
Both boxers and the fans know what to expect from each other in this bout and while Donaire will try to repeat what he did in their first meeting Darchinyan will obviously need to have a different game plan this time around. He simply needs to score as often as he can while staying out of Donaire’s power range. Darchinyan’s naturally more aggressive, but he needs to be aware of Donaire’s sharp counterpunching ability. There should be some toe-to-toe action at times and one or more knockdowns shouldn’t surprise anybody. However, after 10 rounds we should see Donaire win by a relatively close decision.
