GGG great again but Donaire to blame for Walters defeat
Monday 20 October 2014 17:10, UK
Johnny Nelson watched Gennady Golovkin blow his latest opponent away but feels Nonito Donaire blew his own chances, rather than simply being beaten by Nicholas Walters.
Topping the bill was Golovkin, who not only sold out the StubHub Center in California a month ago, but took just four minutes to see off the experienced Marco Antonio Rubio.
Chief support saw Donaire stopped in seven but although the challenger made a name for himself and has age on his side, Nelson was far from happy with what he saw from the Filipino Flash...
Just like everyone else I am genuinely impressed with what he can do and what he's like. He does brilliant things and he does them with complete and utter ease. He is no slickster and it's not as if we don't think he'll get hit because if he does we know he can ride it and deal with it in an unorthodox way. We also know Golovkin is heavy-handed and we saw that with the finish but I still think that will have come as a surprise to someone as experienced as Rubio. Golovkin isn't lightning quick, either; it’s just his punches are so, so powerful. I am sure Rubio saw that left over the top to the temple coming, but I bet he didn’t think it was going to be the end of him. The finish also shows that Golovkin’s left is even harder than his right! This lad is a freak of nature. He has dynamite in both fists and the footwork was good as well - well, for a round at least. I happen to think Golovkin can be out-boxed but where does he go next and who is really going to give him a go? He might have no choice but to go up into the super-middles. Yes, he can go down to light-middle but the one thing he needs now is a challenge and moving up is one of them. Golovkin has almost become a victim of his own success. He is that powerful, that dangerous.
Donaire wasn't beaten, he lost that fight. Every time he was caught it happened when he was engaging. He made fundamental mistakes on numerous occasions
Donaire lost the fight. There's a difference between losing a fight and getting beaten and that is what happened to him. He fought Walters' fight. When he boxed him and stayed outside he was doing well but Walters is good close-in, he loves a brawl, so when Donaire was suckered in we knew he was going to be in trouble. To make the point, Donaire got Walters in trouble at the end of the second because he out-boxed him. Every time he was caught it was becuase he was engaging. He made fundamental mistakes on numerous occasions - maybe because he didn't respect Walters. I don't think it is the end of Donaire. We have seen the best of him but I also believe he is still capable of beating plenty of fighters out there - champions as well.
I looked at Walters and thought 'yes. he a good banger' but at no stage did I sit there thinking 'what a star we've got on our hands'. We didn't see an outstanding technician, what we saw was an outstanding banger. His punch-power won it - that and his gameplan. He knew he had to stick it out, get the other guy into his type of fight and then that power could come through and win the fight. He did it perfectly. One of the things that struck me was he knows his own limitations; he didn't try and do something special, or massively different to what he does. His record (25-0 KO21) shows us what he does well and he showed us how well he can do it. Think of a few years ago, we wouldn't say Nigel Benn was an amazing boxer but we knew he could bang. And then some! Walters got Donaire dancing to his tune and that tells me he can probably do it to most out there. The trouble is people have seen him in action on a massive scale and they are not going to make the mistakes Donaire made. It will be interesting to see where he goes next.
