Donaire vs Darchinyan 2 (Spoilers)

This fight is tonight and I've not even seen a mention of it.

Anyone staying up to watch it, if so how do they see it going?

I think Donaire by comfortable but unspectacular decision, would love to see him put on a show as he's my favourite fighter right now but can't see a repeat of the first fight.

Donaire was losing that fight on my card, but a good finish at the end.

The defeat to Rigo seems to of blunted his confidence. At the age of 30, with a young in tow, I can see his career dovetailing.

Wowzer. Donaire looked pants in there tonight!! Was getting outboxed completely and i had Vic ahead by around 4-5 rounds before the stoppage.

This fight reminded me of Alvarado vs Provdokinov or Taylor vs Froch.

Donaire looks to be on a slippery slope, and for me, is nowhere near P4P anymore.

Just watched the highlights this morning. Donaire looks to have lost some speed. He seemed to be trying to box instead of letting his punches go. Anyway. whatever he was doing it wasn't working. Vic did well by staying away from Donaire's left hand and was a bit unfortunate to get caught with one after fighting so well.

I can't see any way Arum puts Donaire in with Rigo again even if that's what some Donaire fans want to see.

A real struggle for Donaire, wasn't it?

Can't remember seeing him look that bad since he stepped up to world title level. Flat footed and cumbersome by his usual standards.

A criticism which has been aimed at Donaire over the years is that he's never developed a jab of any note (or a defence against one) and that he's gradually become a bit too reliant on finding that one punch knockout, and certainly last night I got the impression that he just thought all he had to do was size Darchinyan up for a couple of rounds and then land that left. Darchinyan said in the build up that, if he took Donaire's left hook away, he wouldn't be able to do anything with him - the scary thing for Nonito is that, for a while, that statement looked to be right on the money.

In fairness to Donaire, that left remains one of the single best shots in boxing and it says a lot about him that he was still able to pull it out and, for all intents and purposes, end the fight with it there and then (I know Vic got up, but his legs were never back under him as his tumble soon after showed, and once that shot landed you just knew that the fight was as good as over).

Be interesting to see what his next move is. He said he was tight at 122, but if his recent Boxing News interview with Donald McRae is anything to go by, he's made Featherweight with ease while still cutting the odd corner and not really having to pay too much attention to his diet. Who knows, maybe the additional weight wasn't to blame, but his slower moves and reflexes last night arguably suggest that 126 lb isn't the place for him (he's talked about ending up at Lightweight and hasn't totally ruled out going higher than that, mind you, so read in to that what you will).

But with Mikey Garcia and Gamboa leaving the Featherweight class recently it's a division which Donaire might still fancy his chances of clearing up in. With Arum keeping everything in-house I suspect we'll see Donaire matched with Salido for the WBO belt sooner or later. You'd probably back Donaire, but he'd have to up his game from what we saw last night.

Credit to Darchinyan, though. Never really been a fan but appreciate his contribution to the lower weights over the past few years and, fighting at a weight that he looks too small for and a few years past his best, he fought admirably last night.

Im a big Donaire fan, but he struggled badly in that fight and was well down on the cards until the stoppage. He seemed gun shy (Vic straight left might have injured his jaw at the start of fight) and didn't really do much at all.

I have to give massive props to Vic Darchinyan, he put on a superb performance and unfortunately for him, he got caught with one of the best punches in boxing. Donaire seems to rely on it too much.

It doesn't look good for him at the moment, he looked a bit shot to me.

The strange thing is he has great boxing skills, speed, timing and intelligence in the ring and his jab is great when he uses it! None of that was really evident last night though.

Thoughts on Mikey Garcia?? Got dropped early and came back to stop Martinez.

How would he fair against Burns?

Wrong weight, don't know how good he would be at lightweight.

He got caught square for the knockdown, but came back strong and totally dissected Martinez. Very impressive performance to stop someone that has never been stopped and won quite easily too. That body shot folded him in half!

Well Garcia has work to do at 130 first, mm8, but right now he's operating at a level above where Burns is at.

Impressed with Garcia and the way he's quietly moving along with his business, it might not be long before he makes himself a serious contender for a top ten pound for pound spot, although he can't be far off right now. One of the most consistent jabs going and he's an excellent timer, too. Wouldn't mind seeing that timing and precision against Gamboa's sheer speed and own considerable power, if the latter can be bothered to cut back down to 130.

Shades of the Golovkin knockout against Macklin last night when watching Garcia.

Watched the Donaire fight in a drunken stupor and from what I recall it's his least impressive performance at world level he's ever had. He seemed to go in with the mentality that the knockout would eventually come and he looked toothless for large parts, he's need to get back to his dynamic best. It was a fight hand picked to make him look but it backfired big time before the get out of jail punch, there's nobody i'd pick over him at featherweight.