Nonito Donaire failed to emulate a watching Manny Pacquiao at ringside as the 40-year-old lost out on the vacant WBC bantamweight title.
Dropping to 42-8, Donaire didn’t do enough in the later rounds against Alexandro ‘Alex’ Santiago in Las Vegas.
Santiago recorded the 28th triumph of his career and fully deserved the victory to claim a world title at the second attempt.
Nonito Donaire fails to emulate Manny Pacquiao
Donaire may now contemplate retirement after his bid to match countryman Pacquiao’s feat of winning a world title at 40 was thwarted.
After twelve hard-fought rounds, judges carded unanimously in favor of Santiago, 116-112 twice and 115-113.
CompuBox stats backed up the end result.
“In the 2nd fight on the Spence-Crawford PPV, Alexandro Santiago used an excellent 2nd half of the fight to overcome Nonito Donaire.
“In the end, both fighters landed 130 total punches. Santiago was busier, throwing 609 punches compared to 495 for Donaire. Santiago held a 62 to 53 advantage in power punches landed.”
If this is the last time we see ‘The Filipino Flash’ inside the ropes, it’s been a hell of a ride and a first-ballot Hall of Fame tenure.
Early results:
Yoenis Tellez proved his credentials in just a sixth professional bout. Tellez took out former European super welterweight champion Sergio Garcia in a hail of blows.
Stunning Garcia in the third round, Tellez dropped the Spaniard before unleashing a torrent of abuse. Garcia was under fire, and referee Robert Hoyle stepped in.
Steven Nelson took his pro run to 19-0 against a game but out-of-depth Rowdy Montgomery. The super middleweight contender dominated most of the ten-round bout to continue his rise through the ranks.
Jose Salas Reyes has thirteen victories to his name after halting Aston Palicte in the fourth round. Reyes recorded the tenth stoppage of his career to move on to more significant challenges at super bantamweight.
At lightweight, DJ Zamora improved to 12-0 with a unanimous decision victory over Nikolai Buzolin.
Justin Viloria made it three wins on the spin with a fourth-round TKO over Pedro Borgaro 5 0 0 at super featherweight.
Kevin Ventura was also looking to push his record to 12-0 but went down to a decision defeat against Deshawn Prather. With the victory, Prather moves to 16-1.
Jabin Chollet scored a stoppage over Michael Portales in the second session and can now boast a perfect 8-0 record.
The bouts occurred on the undercard to Errol Spence Jr. vs Terence Crawford on the world-famous Las Vegas strip.
