Donaire Vs. Montiel: Who Will Pull off the Victory?

On February 19^th, two-division world champ Nonito Donaire (25-1, 17 KO's) will step in the ring against the current WBO/WBC bantamweight champ Fernando Montiel (44-2-2, 34 KO’s) at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.  

This will be an interesting fight, a fight that will be remembered in the history books. Many fight-fans don’t know who to favor for the February 19^th event. Some say Donaire will win, due to his speed and style of fighting, while others say Montiel will be the one pulling off the victory because of his tremendous punching power. There’s no doubt both warriors have great talent and are ready to move to the next level. Donaire is coming off a tremendous fourth round KO against former WBA world bantamweight champion Volodymyr Sydorenko. The Filipino Flash is motivated and wants to prove to the world that he is something special. 

On the other side of the bridge, Fernando Montiel looked great on his last performance against Jovanny Soto, coming off an explosive 2^nd round KO. Fernando has defeated the last four warriors he faced by KO’s. He is ready to face any warrior and will try to repeat history with his tremendous punching power. Since many believe history has a bad habit of repeating itself.

The majority of the Boxing world believes that this fight will end by KO. Whether they want to agree or disagree with me, I believe that the fight will go to the score-cards and one warrior will end up pulling off the victory by split-decision. There’s a good chance that warrior may be Nonito Donaire.

There are three reasons why I believe Nonito Donaire could end up pulling off the victory against Montiel:

Reason No. 1: Nonito Donaire knows how to move around the ring and has great stamina. Moving around the ring when fighting a puncher that has the punching power of an atomic bomb may be frustrating to watch at times. It’s all about Boxing techniques, and the fighter with the better technique will always win. I’m not saying Nonito Donaire will run all the time. However, I believe Donaire’s speed and combinations will cause some trouble. The Filipino Flash will fight Montiel like if he were fighting a bigger fighter due to Fernando’s power. Both warriors will land good punches, but Donaire will know how to land good combinations and move around the ring. Forcing Montiel to chase Donaire and try to force things by trying to land tremendous punches. That will only frustrate Montiel in the later rounds. Donaire’s speed, foot-work and combinations will be good enough to win the majority of the rounds, as long as he keeps moving around and not trade punches with a big puncher like Fernando.

Reason No. 2: Montiel is a major threat to Nonito Donaire. It is true that he has a good chance of winning, if he lands those powerful combinations. However, it’s almost surreal how Donaire and Montiel use the sane combination a lot. I’m talking about the right hook, left uppercut combination. Both fighters love to uppercut with the left hand, they have scored explosive knockdowns with the left uppercut. But when fighting against each other, both warriors will be aware of that combination. I’m not taking anything away from Montiel he’s a talented fighter and has a good chance against Donaire. Montiel will need to rely more on timing and defense. If he only relies on his power and tries to force a KO there’s a possible chance he could fail and lose by decision.

Reason No. 3: We all know Fernando Montiel has great punching power. However, the majority of the people don’t really know what power is. They don’t understand that a fighter can lose his punching power due to many things, such as: stamina, foot-work and the opponent’s style. Montiel’s last four battles have ended by KO or TKO; his last few opponents have not passed the fourth round. It’s a good thing that he’s knocked out his opponents, but when fighting a fighter that has good plans and can come up with new formulas for different rounds, it makes me question if he will have great stamina to keep up with a fighter that will move around a lot. Since Montiel has only fought 16 rounds in the past three years. Last time he went all 12 rounds was in 2008 against Juan Alberto Rojas. While Donaire has fought 31 rounds from his last few fights. Nonito might be used to fighting longer fights and stamina may not be a problem for Donaire when facing Montiel.

Therefore, I believe Donaire will have better stamina and may pull of the victory by split-decision. Nonito's stamina will help him a lot on February 19^th when he steps in the ring against Fernando Montiel. The world may have many predictions, some of us may be right, while others could possibly be wrong. It’s a mystery that we will soon witness.