Column:ALL WRITE

AL S. MENDOZA

 

IT’S DONAIRE’S

TURN TO SHOW

HIS STUFF AGAIN

AFTER Marvin Sonsona, it’s Nonito Donaire Jr.’s turn to grab the spotlight. That’s tomorrow.

Sonsona had successfully hit the comeback trail with just enough effort by scoring an easy unanimous decision victory over Carlos Jacobo, the Mexican knockout artist, on Saturday.

Sonsona could have knocked out Jacobo but for the bell in the eighth.

Jacobo, stringing up 13 wins with 10 knockouts in his last 10 fights going to his date with Sonsona, absorbed a flurry of combinations and flung almost under the ropes.

The bell rang just as the referee had barely started counting.

But Sonsona was unable to put Jacobo away for good in the concluding last two rounds, the ring rust of not fighting for 18 months finally slowing him down a bit

Still, the victory over Jacobo, who is now 16-4-1, was a win worthy of chest-beating. 

You become inactive that long—almost two years—and you have legs laden with lead.  Thank God, Sonsona wasn’t hit by cramps.

More than the victory therefore is the inalienable right of Sonsona, who is now 15-1 with 12 knockouts, to also regain his moniker as “Marvelous.”

It won’t be long when he’d also recapture the old glory that he so deserves—richly.

And now to Donaire.

We will see him fight again tomorrow, Sunday, in New York’s Madison Square Garden. If I know him, he’ll retain both his WBC and WBO bantamweight titles.

It might not be an easy fight though if we consider the ring record of Donaire’s foe.

Omar Narvaez is unbeaten in 37 fights, drawing twice and boasting of 19 knockouts.

That tells a lot of the Argentinian, who also reigned as WBO world flyweight champion for seven years.

But at 5-foot-3, Narvaez is shorter by three inches and that should put him in a huge disadvantage against Donaire, who isn’t only rangy at 5-foot-6 but also quick not only on the punch but also on footwork.

And take this:  Narvaez is fighting at 118 lb for only the first time.

In his last fight at 118 in February, Donaire knocked out defending champion Fernando Montiel in the second round.

Not only was it sensational.  Spectacular, too.

My prediction?

Narvaez will be lucky if he lasts five rounds.*