In a Facebook post, new WBA featherweight champion Nonito Donaire Jr. shows the stitches above his left eye from a cut he got on a headbutt in his fight against Vetyeka.
MANILA, Philippines—Nonito Donaire Jr. needed 11 stitches to close the bloody gash above his left eye caused by a head butt from Simpiwe Vetyeka in their world title fight Saturday night in Macao, China.
The bout was halted by the referee in the fifth round due to the nasty cut that Donaire sustained in the first round which left his vision bloodied the rest of the way.
But Donaire kept on fighting, even knocking down Vetyeka in the fourth.
The “Filipino Flash” was awarded the WBA featherweight crown, winning by unanimous technical decision as he was ahead in the scorecards. As per the rules, if a fight is stopped before the fourth, it is declared no contest but if it goes beyond four rounds, it goes to the scorecards.
“I was just fighting on instinct.” Donaire said in a story posted on philboxing.com, “I couldn’t see properly.”
Donaire posted his nasty cut that stopped the fight on his official Facebook account.
“I wanted to finish the fight continuing off the knockdown but unfortunately my cut was called by the ref and docs. I wanted to keep fighting. I received 11 stitches and will need to heal this,” the Filipino boxer said.
After losing badly to Guillermo Rigondeaux then bouncing back with a stoppage of Vic Darchinyan in a non-title fight last year, Donaire opened his 2014 with a fifth division crown.
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