Watch Nonito Donaire’s big arrival on the world boxing scene.
Manny Pacquiao deservedly takes all the spotlight as the best boxer to ever come out of The Philippines, and obviously one of the best boxers of all-time. But this week’s Sunday Punch is focused on another Filipino legend who was absolutely among the top pound-for-pound in the world in his prime.
On July 7th, 2007 in Connecticut, Nonito Donaire took on IBF flyweight champion Vic Darchinyan in a fight that figured to be Darchinyan’s. At the time, Darchinyan was undefeated and one of his title defenses came against Nonito’s older brother Glenn. Nonito was 17-1 but he only had two scheduled 12-rounders to his name, several of his opponents didn’t even have winning record, and as such was a heavy underdog against the Armenian powerhouse.
After four competitive rounds, Donaire shocked the boxing world and turned the tables on the hard-hitting Darchinyan. Normally used to stopping his opposition, it was Darchinyan who was on the end of a brutal left hook that put the champ down for the first time in his career. Vic’s cornerman went into the ring as Darchinyan was wobbling back up, which is grounds for instant disqualification by rule, but the ref had already waved it off.
This was Ring Magazine’s KO of the Year and Upset of the Year for 2007.
Watch highlights and the KO itself at the top of the page.
Darchinyan did eventually move up to super-flyweight and unified three of the four major belts. Unfortunately, once he went to bantamweight his peak years were behind him. He eventually rematched Donaire in a non-title bout in 2013, losing by 9th round KO in a fight he was winning on the scorecards. Knockout losses to Nicholas Walters and Jesus Cuellar at featherweight confirmed he was cooked, and he retired in 2017 with a record of 43-9-1 (32 KOs). He’ll no doubt be in the International Boxing Hall of Fame very soon as a legend of the lighter weight classes.
Donaire (40-6, 26 KOs) firmly established himself as an elite fighter with this knockout, and “The Filipino Flash” maintained his dominance through flyweight and all the way up to super-bantamweight. His winning run finally ended against Guillermo Rigondeaux in 2013, and with it so did his prime years. And yet, Donaire is still very much relevant at bantamweight, having come up just short against Naoya Inoue in an absolute classic last November. He’s scheduled to face WBC champion Nordine Oubaali this December in what should be a phenomenal clash.
