Sean Michael Ham/TGB Promotions
Saturday night on Showtime, Nonito Donaire will attempt to make further history in his already Hall of Fame-bound career, as he looks to take the WBC bantamweight title from Nordine Oubaali and become the oldest bantamweight titleholder ever.
Can he do it, or does Oubaali get the win and possibly send Donaire into retirement?
Scott Christ (34-10-2)
I’ve become an increasingly big fan of Nonito Donaire over the last wow, nearly 14 years. I still remember the feeling he came basically out of nowhere to knock Vic Darchinyan out on Showtime, ending Darchinyan’s dominant and rather arrogant run as IBF flyweight champ. Darchinyan had been a surprising cornerstone of the Showtime boxing brand for a minute, and Nonito was expected by most to be another victim. He was anything but.
Photo by KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP via Getty Images
In a sport marked by unfairness, boxers in the lower weight classes receive the least amount of attention and money, despite delivering arguably the highest quality product boxing has to offer. This is well-worn territory though; it’s almost as cliche as complaining about the silliness of the sanctioning bodies.
But for Moruti Mthalane, it doesn’t really seem to matter. He’s remained at the 112 pound weight class for practically his entire career, never moving up to chase bigger names. This may have been detrimental in terms of global recognition, but I think there’s something to be said for finding the weight class best suited to one’s body and making it your own (the late, great Marvelous Marvin Hagler is probably the most famous example of this approach). Despite being 38-years-old practically Methuselah for 112 Mthalane hasn’t sought the greener pastures of 115, content to rely on the metabolism of a much younger man
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2021-03-11 12:51:00
Vic Darchinyan Calls on Fellow Athletes to Demand Return of Armenian Captives
World champion boxer Vakhtang Vic Darchinyan, in a Facebook post, has urged fellow athletes around the world to protest the continued Azerbaijani imprisonment of Armenian captives.
Darchinyan writes:
My country has a lot of serious problems nowadays and the most essential of them is getting our captives back to their motherland.
I appeal to all the athletes of the world not to be indifferent and join my call for making Azerbaijani government to return our Armenian captives, who are being held like prisoners.
The war is over. Thousands of people have died, thousands of families are grieving, but there are soldiers who have survived and can still return home. I’m asking you to speak up, so that our Armenian captives are no longer locked up in Azerbaijan.
Vic Darchinyan draws top athletes attention to Armenian POWs newsinfo.am - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from newsinfo.am Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.