A courageous Nonito Donaire came up short but as always gave it his all.
At 43 he was a man reborn in recent times in professional boxing.
Stacking up some wins and great performances in recent times on route to a world title bid.
He came up short a short time ago as his corner pulled him out to save him.
Here’s the breakdown:
- The fight was a title eliminator held in Yokohama, Japan (at Yokohama Budokan or Yokohama Buntai).
- Riku Masuda (Japan) defeated Nonito Donaire (Philippines/”Filipino Flash”) via TKO/stoppage in round 8.
- Donaire’s corner threw in the towel to stop the fight after approximately 1:12 of round 8.
- Donaire was dropped in round 7 by a straight left from Masuda.
- At the time of the stoppage, Masuda was leading on the scorecards: one judge had it 67-65, and two had it 68-64 (all for Masuda).
- Donaire was 43 years old and coming off a recent split decision loss to champion Seiya Tsutsumi.
- Masuda improved his record to 10-1 (9 KOs); Donaire’s record became 43-9 (28 KOs).The bout was part of the U-Next Boxing 5 event.
Alas, Donaire has been a credit to himself and the sport his entire career.
Whatever he does next will of course be successful.
What a warrior — Nonito Donaire.
