Donaire beats Juarez to bring title back home
Pacquiao delays announcement of next foe
MIAMI: Filipino star Nonito Donaire reclaimed the World Boxing Organization super bantamweight world title on Friday with a gutsy unanimous decision over Mexico’s Cesar Juarez in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Donaire was in control early, knocking Juarez down twice with left hooks in the fourth round.
But an aggressive Juarez turned the tide in the middle rounds, battering the 33-year-old Donaire who was clearly slowing by the seventh round under an onslaught that left him with one eye cut and swelling.
Juarez, 24, should have been credited with a knockdown in the 10th, when his left hook sent Donaire down.
But Donaire had enough left to land effectively in the final rounds and won the thriller by scores of 116-110, 116-110 and 117-109.
“Tremendous fight!” Donaire said. “We give him so much respect. We gave it all.
“I will definitely give him a rematch,” he added.
Juarez, who fell to 17-4 with 13 knockouts, thought the scores should have been closer — but he didn’t dispute Donaire’s win.
“The judges were not fair,” he said. “It was much closer, like a oneor two-point fight. But I do think Donaire won.”
With the win Donaire improved to 36-3 with 23 knockouts.
A former world champion in five weight divisions, he captured the vacant WBO super bantamweight belt.
It’s a title Donaire had held before — losing it by unanimous decision in 2013 to Guillermo Rigondeaux who was stripped of the crown for inactivity.
Donaire has now won three fights in a row since his return to 122 pounds in the wake of a sixth-round knockout loss to unbeaten Jamaican Nicholas Walters 14 months ago.
That defeat in Los Angeles saw Donaire lose the World Boxing Association featherweight world title.
Meanwhile, Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao has delayed the planned announcement of his next opponent in what could be the final fight of his legendary career.
Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter, said earlier that Pacquiao would reveal his next foe during cable network truTV’s coverage of the Donaire fight.
But a spokesman for Arum, Fred Sternburg, told ESPN that Pacquiao, the only fighter to win world titles in eight different weight classes, is not yet ready to make a decision regarding who he will fight next in a card set for April 9 at Las Vegas.
Pacquiao, 57-6 with two drawn and 38 knockouts, turns 37 on Thursday and plans to run for a senate seat in the Philippines and retire from the ring to devote himself to work as a lawmaker. He is already a congressman in his homeland.
Possible opponents for Pacquiao include Tim Bradley, an American who is 33-1-1 with 13 knockouts who split two prior fights with “Pac Man”, and unbeaten American Terence Crawford, 27-0 with 19 knockouts.
Pacquiao underwent rotator cuff surgery after a unanimous decision loss to Floyd Mayweather last May.
In Kobe, Japan’s Etsuko Tada defeated Mexican Kareli Lopez in a unanimous decision on Friday in a IBF women’s world mini-flyweight title bout, taking her first world title in more than two and a half years.
The 34-year-old Tada, who became the WBA minimumweight champion in April 2009 and defended the title on nine occasions, at times found herself on the back foot against Lopez, but scored points using powerful lefthanded body punches.
“I’m relieved. I could see them [her opponent’s punches] but it was tricky boxing from her,” said Tada, who now has a 15-2 record with four knockouts and two draws. “It wasn’t pretty. I’d like to get strong again.”
Former WBC bantamweight and featherweight champion Hozumi Hasegawa, 34, also won on a unanimous decision at Kobe Central Gymnasium, despite hitting the canvas twice in the third and fifth rounds of his bout with Mexican Carlos Luis.
“This is where I currently stand. I thought I could overwhelm him but I let myself down,” said Hasegawa, ranked ninth in the WBC featherweight division.
“I had a perfect fight other than the two knock-downs, those were the only clean hits I took. I’ll check the video replay to work out how he hit me.”
“There’s no reason to quit when you know you can get stronger,” said Hasegawa, who made a winning comeback following a year out in May, returning with a more defensive style.
“This is [like] the fights I had before. I wanted to box just like when I was enjoying fighting.”