One of the more bizarre, heart breaking things in recent world championship boxing happened tonight in the Nonito Donaire vs Ryan Burnett fight.
Filipino flash Nonito Donaire captured the WBA ‘Super’ bantamweight title and became champion of the world again all be it in the most unfortunate of circumstances.
Champion Burnett got off to a good start but after throwing a big swinging right hand Burnett all of a sudden suffered a debilitating back injury.
He was then forced to take a number of big shots from Donaire while up against the ropes where he was essentially a sitting duck.
He somehow managed to reach the end of the bell but as soon as he went back to his corner his trainer Adam Booth after accessing the injury signalled that he needed to retire from the fight due to the injury.
After the fight a classy Donaire did not celebrate the win and paid tribute to Burnett following what was a freak accident.
He labelled Burnett as:
“An amazing fighter.”
Although the fight ended in unfortunate circumstances, Donaire did show that he was not a completely shot fighter like many had indicated before tonight.
He certainly has enough hand speed and experience to trouble many of the top fighters in his weight category.
