Nonito Donaire: Age is Just a Number
Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images
We Doubted, But…
Nonito Donaire, it turns out, has still got it. Big style.
Three years ago, it looked like he was done. He'd just fought Carl Frampton for a featherweight title and, though he came strong towards the end, he'd been largely outboxed and out-powered at a weight that he'd never been genuinely comfortable at. Aged 35, and having lost to a fighter who in the eyes of many had himself had seen better days, it wasn't clear where his path could profitably lead.
When he announced that he was going to shed weight and drop two divisions to compete in the WBSS tourney at bantamweight, the concerns only grew. Cutting weight gets harder as we age, so moving down to a division he hadn't fought at since 2011 seemed a risky bet. Nonito, there are monsters down there.
And indeed, he fought the Monster. Anyone following the online discourse at the time will remember: we didn't give him much of a chance. His path to the final had been seen as soft – he'd fought surprisingly well against the highly rated Ryan Burnett, true, but the fight had hardly started to develop before Burnett withdrew with a back injury (one that ultimately ended his career). Then his projected opponent in the semi-final, Zolani Tete, withdrew before the fight even started, leaving Donaire to beat the unknown, unfancied Stephon Young.
So really, he was there, but what had he proved? Did he really have anything left?
Rejuvenation
Yes, as it turned out. Sure, he didn't win, but not only did he prove that he was not physically a shell of himself, that his resilience, timing and power were still there, but he showed the dominant, devastating p4p superstar a few tricks of technique, any worries from earlier in his career that he'd fallen in love with his left hook long left behind. The pair delivered a back-and-forth fight-of-the-year contender, and though he lost, he was able to test both Inoue’s attack - with a superb body defence and some perfectly balanced riding of his opponent’s work upstairs taking the sting off some of that legendary power- and his defence, landing his own fairly legendary left hand enough to do obvious damage and eventually break Inoue’s orbital. He left with his reputation enhanced and questions over his decline looking somewhat foolish.
And now to last Saturday. Any lingering doubts about Donaire's refreshment and career resurgence must be put to bed, as he stepped in with the other champion at the weight: Nordine Oubaali, a French fighter who may not have drawn fan attention but had a very solid run of WBC title defences. It was meant to be a final litmus test - a measure of whether the performance against Inoue was some last gathering of resources against a big-name foe, if he’d simply exposed some previously unseen weaknesses in the Japanese superstar.
As it turns out, a test is exactly what it wasn’t, as Donaire smashed a seemingly overmatched Oubaali in four rounds.
The Fight
The first was a veteran’s round from Nonito; he was counting time, dropping back, luring Oubaali in, getting a read on his timing, his speed, his general approach. In this round there was little to suggest either way whether Donaire had dropped off physically or maintained his edge.
It was in round two that it became clear that not only did Nonito look physically sharp, he’d lost none of his in-ring smarts too.
He played a two-time game with Oubaali. He began the second round with a big straight right to Oubaali’s torso; setting his stall out aggressively - he ate a return shot too, but it didn’t do much to deter him - he then once again goaded Nordine in, let him swing and countered on Oubaali’s reset, often with a powerful rear straight to the solar plexus or face.
He did this pretty much every time he let Oubaali come forward; tempt him in, make him swing, then counter not the punch, but the whole movement.
But to make it extra tricky for poor Oubaali, when Nonito decided to put pressure of his own on, he would begin to counter the punch itself.
This is when Nonito’s patented left hook came into play.
Once Nonito decided the bait and trap time was over, he would begin to edge into range, feinting his shoulder, his feet and stepping in slow, encroaching. Then, when Oubaali felt it was time to fire off to push Nonito back, he would be cracked with an instant counter. Thus, Donaire was able to corral Oubaali one way or the other into the ropes, or along them, off balance and on his heels.
It wasn’t entirely plain sailing for Donaire; let’s not strip Oubaali of all of his credit. Occasionally it would seem that Donaire got a little bit lackadaisical when it came to coming forward. When he was minding his Ps and Qs on the drop-away, Oubaali could barely touch him, but when he decided to try the GGG route, he left his head on the plane a little too often and occasionally got rocked back on his heels by his bullish opponent.
But, objectively, by the end of the second, Donaire knew the fight, and knew that it was his for the taking.
Donaire knew by this point that even if he allowed himself to be drawn into a trade in close, and make no mistake, it was Nonito’s decision, he had the power to warn Oubaali off whenever he needed.
Both knockdowns in the third came via the Nonito left hook in the pocket; pressure would beget a reaction from Oubaali, which would in turn enact the rocket left - a beautiful example of pressure-countering. As for the controversy over the late-not-late punch which floored Oubaali - the bell sounded as the action that begat the knockdown started; referee Jack Reiss did an excellent job of administering the count and maintaining order through the potential confusion.
And the fourth round, the round where Nonito Donaire’s remarkable record of being the oldest bantamweight champ in history (at 38!) was established, was much of the same.
Pressure turns into counter, turns into counter-to-the-counter, and Oubaali down for the third time in the fight, and Reiss waving it off over the prone carcass of the game former champion from France.
The Future
So, after that, what next? Donaire wants Inoue, understandably, but his team’s attention is more likely to be focused on the winner of another aging legend, Guillermo Rigondeaux, against Jon Riel Casimero. In truth, it may make more sense for Donaire to also throw his hat in the ring for that: he either gets an all-Phillipino unification clash, which will surely do big business back home, or a chance to revenge his most humiliating defeat.
Either way, or if he has to sit out and wait to fight the winner of the winners, perhaps fighting someone else along the way, we’re enjoying the unexpected late bloom of a genuine legend, and we should enjoy it while we have it.