Nonito Donaire Tames Cobrita Martinez

IBF/IBO flyweight champion Nonito Donaire upped his record to  21-1, 14 KOs as he steamrolled Raul ‘La Cobrita’ Martinez (24-1, 14 KOs) over four rounds on Saturday night at Araneta Coliseum in Metro Manila, Philippines.

The event was shown on pay per view. The bouts unfolded in the morning in the Phillipines, to cater to the United States audience, and backers, Top Rank.

Donaire fans would like to see a rematch between their man and “Evil” Vic Darchinyan, the Armenian assassin who tasted some of his own medicine in the first go round, and was kayoed in the fifth round of their July 2007 scrap.

The 26-year old Donaire, who now resides in California, sent Martinez (age 27) to the mat twice in the first, again in round two, and  administered the coup de grace at 2:42 of the fourth.The capper was a left hookercut which had the ref waving his arms to stop the faceoff as Martinez was falling to the canvas. The loser hopped up, eager to continue, but he would not be granted that right, not on this night.

In the chief undercard attraction,  28-year-old Brian Viloria (25-2, 15 KOs) took down  IBF junior fly champion Ulises Solis (28-2-2, 20 KOs) via an eleventh round knockout. Viloria had a handle on things early, then Solis came on in the second half.  A right at 2:56 of round eleven finished the matter. Viloria had the WBC version of the title in 2005, and defended the title once.

It was theorized that he couldn’t make this weight comfortably, but Viloria has surprised many doubters who thought he peaked early. The Mexican Solis, age 27,  hadn’t lost in nine defenses of his crown