Donaire unleashes devastating left hook to stop Montiel

Nonito Donaire stops Fernando Montiel

Nonito Donaire threw a cracking left hook to the right side of the head of Mexican Fernando Montiel to score a second-round TKO in their bantamweight championship fight in Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Donaire is now the WBC and WBO bantamweight champion with the impressive win.

Nicknamed "The Filipino Flash", Donaire was very active in the first round, throwing jabs and landing combinations. Montiel tried to keep up until the second round. But the Mexican threw a weak right during the middle of the second round and did not see the explosive left hook uncorked by Donaire.

Montiel fell on his back, his legs twitching and he struggled to get up. Referee Russell Mora allowed the fight to continue anyway. But Donaire came charging to finish off Montiel and the referee finally declared the bout over at 2:25 of the second round.

Nonito Donaire (26-1, 18 KOs) won his second fight as a bantamweight after flooring Volodymyr Sydorenko in December. Fernando Montiel, who was the more experienced fighter, held the World Boxing Council (WBC) and World Boxing Organization (WBO) bantamweight belts.

Donaire has now won 24 straight fights with the last ten coming by way of knockout. His latest triumph confirms his status as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in boxing today.

Montiel is the latest in a long line of Mexican boxing champions who have fallen to Filipino boxers. Manny Pacquiao, Donaire's compatriot, has already dispatched the likes of Erik Morales, Juan Manuel Marquez and Marco Antonio Barrera over the past decade.

Indeed, the career of Donaire seems destined to follow that of his idol Pacquaio, who is considered the best boxer in the world today. With today's demolition of Montiel, Manny Pacquaio should be proud of his heir apparent -- Nonito Donaire.

Posted by Andre Monohan on Sunday February 20 2011, 12:20 AM EDT. Ref: GMA. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0