Comments Thread For: “Fighting Words” – The Bar is Too High for Nonito, Sergio

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

by David P. Greisman - It’s great to be good.

It’s great to be great.

It’s not so good to be thought of as great, however, when you don’t look as great as people think you are.

Boxing is a venture founded in expectations but grounded in reality. A fighter will reach his limit as soon as an opponent becomes an obstacle, and as soon as that impediment becomes insurmountable.

Nonito Donaire and Sergio Martinez are very good fighters whose moments of greatness have set the bar too high. For Donaire and Martinez — or rather for those who now expect the best from them — being very good is no longer good enough.

Those expectations are the product of single shots — left hooks landed twice by Donaire on Vic Darchinyan and Fernando Montiel, and an overhand left landed as a knockout blow by Martinez on Paul Williams.

Those punches ended fights abruptly and promptly kick-started the hype.

Donaire practically disappeared after the 2007 win over Darchinyan, fighting on Showtime broadcasts and independent pay-per-views but never truly capitalizing on the stardom for which he seemed destined. It was unmistakable that he was very good and getting better, defending his flyweight belt, moving up one division and winning an interim title, then moving up once more to bantamweight and plowing through Wladimir Sidorenko. [Click Here To Read More]

[Maidana vs Rios]

wow khan actually took the high road, good for him

[WESS]

Good read.

[bojangles1987]

It is part of greatness. Floyd, Pac, and Marquez are held to the same standards. Hopefully Donaire and Martinez realize that and take the stupid criticism as a compliment.

[Bushbaby]

It might be, although their star power isn't high enough for them to cherrypick in peace. The business of boxing dictates when a fighter can & cannot afford to fight whoever they choose & be praised for it. Martinez & Donaire have not reached that level yet.

[danktrees]

while donaire hasn't looked particularly impressive in his last 3 fights he has won 2 of them convincingly and unified 2 belts in the 3rd fight. I'm willing to give him more time since this is just his 2nd fight at bantam and he's fighting the title holder. If he fights nishioka or rigo next and wins (for the record I don't see him beating rigo) then I think his status gets restored. A victory over arce or mares would also be impressive though it probably won't be as significant unless he kos them in impressive fashion.

as for Martinez I don't think he's done poorly. He was dancing circles around dzinzuruk and had him completely lost. Barker meanwhile was not exactly trying to fight much. From what I remember, after landing that one uppercut he didn't do much after that as evidenced by the fact that Sergio's nose never bled again after. While barker may not have been narvaez, he wasn't exactly boxing much yet Martinez still knocked him out...something donaire was not able to do with his opponents as noted in this article. Against Macklin, he didn't look impressive for 7 rounds but once he figured Macklin out he essentially knocked him out within 3 rounds. Considering Macklin took little to no damage through 7, the fact the Martinez knocked him out at the end of the 11th round I pretty impressive as it only took him 3 rounds to do all that damage. From what they were saying the game plan was always to take a bit of time to figure Macklin out before ending it. Whether you believe that or not is at your discretion, all I know is that Martinez destroyed him when he decided to turn it on.

[MJ223]

Just veiled compliments..... If they weren't that good it would be nothing to talk/complain about.....

[New England]

they're easily the most overrated fighters on the planet

still top 10 p4p, though. boxing is pretty weak right now.

[Ravens Fan]

A little side note to the obviously ignorant Mr. Garcia. Christians and Muslims actually believe in the same God.

[anonymous2.0]

wow khan actually took the high road, good for him

It's not hard to take the high ground when your opponent has voluntarily lowered himself thus granting you the 'high' ground. It's a predictable response to an obvious provocation that makes you seem 'above' the racism.


But on the other hand, if it wasn't for the trash talk from the Garcia camp, I wouldn't be interested in the fight, Amir Khan has done jack all to promote this fight.