Nonito “Filipino Flash” Donaire Knocks Out Mexico’s Fernando Montiel

In one swoop via a left hook Nonito “Filipino Flash” Donaire ripped the WBC and WBO bantamweight world titles from Mexico’s Fernando Montiel (44-3-2, 34 KOs) by technical knockout on Saturday.

A hard core boxing crowd saw Donaire (26-1, 18 KOs) win the battle of pound for pound fighters in electrifying fashion at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. Montiel was good, but Donaire is great and showed it.

Immediately Donaire set the tone with some leaping lefts and rights that caught Mexico’s Montiel blinking from the suddenness of the blows. Every time the Mexican speedster tried a move it was beaten by Donaire. The lanky Filipino from San Leandro won the first round handily.

“I wanted to see how his body was,” Donaire said after.

A small conference in Montiel’s corner before the second round resulted in the long-time champion looking to press forward and closer with feints, head movement and jabs. Donaire readjusted his bomb sights and slipped into a counter-punch mode.

The effects were immediate.

Montiel looked to power through with a right and delivered one through Donaire’s gloves, but was wide open for the counter left hook. The impact from that single punch sent Montiel to the canvas with his legs struggling to move while on his back. Referee Russell Mora began the count and Montiel rolled around and suddenly leaped up to beat the count. Though seemingly steady, Montiel was still lost in a cloud. When the fight resumed Donaire leaped in for the kill and busted a right and left that forced the referee to stop the fight at 2:25 of the second round.

“I knew exactly what was going to happen and where he was going to be at,” Donaire said.

Donaire is the new WBO and WBC bantamweight champion.

“I just came out there believing in this talent God has given me,” said Donaire, who is a former flyweight world champion. “I predicted this eight months ago.”

The new champion indicated again that he would like to be the unified bantamweight world champion perhaps signifying that he will fight the winner of Joseph Agbeko and Abner Mares in April.

Welters

It was a rematch between skill and will and skill won as Mike Jones (24-0, 18 KOs) used his footwork, jab, crisp combinations and strategy to beat the Los Mochis fighter Jesus Soto Karass (24-6-3, 16 KOs) by unanimous decision.

Unlike the first fight, Jones didn’t blow his load trying to knock out the stone chin of Soto Karass. He had never fought a Mexican before especially one from Los Mochis, and learned from their first fight that guys from that region are known for taking a punch.

Boy did he learn.

Jones used the jab like a rapier and kept circling left all night long. It was plan A and it worked to near perfection as Soto Karass never cut off the ring and allowed the Philadelphia boxer to stick to game room strategy.

Mexico’s Soto Karass worked the body continuously and was intent on firing punches in-between Jones punches. It worked but he never had an answer for those jabs that kept winning points for Jones.

Round and round it went with Jones hitting and moving and Soto Karass pressing to attack and not finding enough moments to take advantage of his body attack. Then, ironically, Jones pressed the attack to the Mexican fighter’s body and that seemed to slow down Soto Karass even more.

Of course Soto Karass was not about to give in, despite various moments in between rounds when doctors, his trainer and the referee offered him to take a stool, he was not about to surrender.

Jones kept boxing adeptly absorbing a shot here and there but more often jabbed, sliced right hands and uppercuts in convincing the judges he was the clear winner 115-113, 116-112, and 117-111.

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