CARSON, Calif. – Surgery isn’t pretty. But sometimes it’s necessary.
It was Saturday night for Nonito Donaire in a well-crafted, yet careful ninth-round stoppage of Toshiaki Nishioka in a super-bantamweight bout booed by a Home Depot Center crowd that had just witnessed some Fight of the Year drama in Brandon Rios’ victory over Mike Alvarado.
There was no way Donaire and Nishioka could put together a satisfying encore. Who could?
Then again, there also aren’t many times when a fighter with world-class credentials lands only 49 punches. That was Nishioka’s total, according to Compubox, which broke it down to 23 jabs and 26 power punches. Rios and Alvarado landed more punches in their walk from the dressing room for opening bell.
Nishioka, a 122-pound fighter from Japan with an accomplished resume, looked listless and perhaps a little surprised. From the beginning, he looked confused. He tried to avoid instead of engage Donaire. Fewer punches magnified the ones that did land, especially from Donaire.
“Nonito is a surgeon,’’ Donaire (30-1, 19 KOs) said.
In the sixth, the Doctor was in.
Donaire delivered a left- uppercut that dropped Nishioka (39-5-3, 24 KOs). Donaire said he hurt his left hand sometime in the middle of the fight. After the sixth, he said he had to rely on his right.
No problem. In the ninth, he dropped Nishioka and the curtain with a straight right. Referee Raul Caiz called it at 1:54 of the round.
“I’ve never seen a fighter with that kind of speed,’’ Nishioka said.
For Donaire, it’s hard to know what’s next. He wants to fight Abner Mares. But Donaire is a Top Rank fighter and Mares is promoted by Golden Boy. Peace on earth has a better chance than a Golden Boy-Top Rank alliance.
Then again, maybe a good surgeon can mend the promotional rift that stands in the way of the only 122-pound fight anybody wants to see. Dr. Donaire can hope.
Rios wins TKO on a night when he and Alvarado deliver
They hoped for Arturo Gatti-Micky Ward. They talked about Jose Luis Castillo-Diego Corrales. They promised a lot.
Brandon Rios and Mike Alvarado delivered.
In their own way.
First, there were punches. Then, there were counters. Then, there were chants. Then, there was astonishment. Never was there an interruption, until Rios suddenly found energy where everybody else had begun to see signs of potential fatigue. They weren’t looking in the right place.
But it was there, somewhere inside Rios (31-0-1, 22 KOs), who marshaled his energies Saturday night for a dramatic seventh-round TKO of Alvarado (33-1, 23 KOs) in what might be the Fight of this Year and few other years.
Rios, of Oxnard, Calif., caught Alvarado with an overhand right. The punch seemed to land on Alvarado’s left temple. He appeared dazed. He slumped against the ropes. That was an invitation the instinctively aggressive Rios could not resist. He swarmed Alvarado at a rate that the Compubox computer at ringside must have had a hard time counting. The punches were hard to see. Alavardo surely couldn’t
Appearing defenseless, referee Pat Russell called it at 1:57 of the round, awarding Rios a TKO and perhaps a shot at the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez rematch on Dec. 8.
“I knew the overhand right would do it,’’ Rios said, who had a slight bruise under his right eye.
Rios, fighting for the first time at junior-welterweight, waited for his chance to land it while enduring one cracking uppercut after another from Alvarado. After six rounds, the bout was tied, 57-57, on each of the cards held by judges Max Deluca and Zach Young. On James Je Kin’s card, Rios led, 58-57.
Alvarado, of Denver, was showing Rios a shoulder and rolling it in a defensive tactic. Amid a relentless body attack, Alvarado finally abandoned the tactic. That was the beginning of the end to a drama that had a capacity crowd of more than 7,000 at the Home Depot Center on its collective feet and roaring its approval.
Rios listened and broke into a smile that said:
“I told you so.’’
Never, he said, was there a moment when he thought Alvarado might have gained the momentum and begun to do enough to win.
“Hell, no,’’ he said to a question thrown at him by HBO Max Kellerman moments after he was declared the victory.
Hell, yes, was the response from an audience that knew Rios and Alvarado had been to hell and back. And, hell yes, everybody was happy to have been along for the ride.
Benavidez rocked, yet survives to win unanimous decision
There’s always been one question about Jose Benavidez Jr.
Could he take a punch?
That punch landed Saturday.
For one fight, at least, Benavidez had an answer. He could take one. He could endure, at least long enough to remain unbeaten in his brief career.
Benavidez (17-0, 13 KOs), a junior-welterweight from Phoenix, was rocked by a left hook from Pavel Miranda (19-8-1, 10 KOs) of Tijuana with about 45 seconds left in an eight-round fight. Dazed and unsteady, Benavidez stumbled across the canvas at an outdoor ring at Home Depot Center, yet managed to hold on to victory by unanimous decision and his status as an unbeaten prospect.
If Miranda’s hook had landed earlier, or if he had followed up with another punch, or had the fight been scheduled for 10 rounds, the story might be very different. Benavidez might be anguishing over his first defeat.
Those are questions that the 20-year-old Benavidez will now have to confront and answer against better, more powerful opponents. There’s never a definitive answer. There are only lessons and more fights, many more of both for Benavidez, who relied on his jab to claim a victory that was nearly taken from him during the bout’s desperate last moments.
The Best
Light-heavyweight Trevor McCumby only enhanced the likelihood he’ll be offered a Top Rank contract this week with his seventh stoppage in seven victories. McCumby, a Chicago native who trains in Phoenix and Oxnard, Calif., at Robert Garcia’s gym, was never challenged in a first-round demolition of Mexican Eliseo Durazo (4-4, 1 KO).
The Rest
Lightweight Javier Garcia (8-2-1, 7 KOs) of Oxnard, Calif., knocked down Jose Roman (14-0-1, 11 KOs) in the first round. Roman, of Garden Grove, Calif., returned the favor in the second. But the ringside physician had the final say. He stopped the fight after the third because of a cut sustained by Garcia, although it appeared the wound was cause by a punch. The fight was declared a technical draw.
Featherweight Evgeny Gradovich (14-0, 7 KOs) calls himself the “Mexician Russan.’’ He needed Mexican tactics and toughness to score a unanimous decision over Jose Angel Beranza (36-25-2, 27 KOs) in a brawling, give-and-take eight-rounder.
Miami super-middleweight Ronald Ellis (4-0, 3 KOs) came into the ring wearing sunglasses. He took them off, fought for four rounds, put them back on, stepped out of the ring and into the sunshine with a unanimous decision over Denver’s Katrell Straus (2-3, 1 KO). Easy as that.
A super-featherweight bout between Mexican Cesar Garcia (6-12-1, 1 KO) and Saul Rodriguez (6-0-1, 5 KOs) was ruled technical draw. The ringside physician stopped it after two rounds because of bloody cut suffered by Garcia in an apparent head butt.
Top Rank signs Mexican Olympian
Top Rank announced Saturday that it has signed Mexican Olympian Oscar Valdez. Valdez, a two-time Olympian, lost to eventual silver medalist John Joe Nevin of Ireland at bantamweight during the London Games in August. Valdez, 22, grew up in Nogales, which is a town on the border with Arizona.
Photos by Chris Farina / Top Rank
