Simpiwe Vetyeka of South Africa and Nonito Donaire (L) of the Philippines fight during their WBA featherweight title boxing fight in Macau on May 31, 2014. Donaire won the fight. AFP PHOTO / ANTHONY WALLACE
MACAU—When the chips are down, count on Nonito Donaire Jr. to pull an ace from his sleeve.
The pound-for-pound Filipino favorite did it in his previous fight when, trailing on points, he slammed Vic Darchinyan in the ninth round to score a come-from-behind win.
On Saturday night here, before cheering fans that filled Cotai Arena of the Venetian, Donaire once again played his cards right to pull off a stunning—albeit strange—unanimous technical decision win over Simpiwe Vetyeka.
But it wasn’t his left hook that did it this time. Blood oozing profusely from his left eyelid, Donaire used pure and simple ring smarts.
Knowing the fight would end in a technical draw if referee Luis Pabon stopped it in less than four rounds, Donaire asked him to let the fight continue, risking more damage to the more than one-inch cut on his eye.
It was obvious that he was buying time—long enough to eventually knock the South African down in the fourth. Then, at the start of the fifth, he told the referee he could not take it anymore.
By then, he was convinced he’d had enough points.
5th crown
True enough, after a few confused moments, the 31-year-old Donaire was world champion again. He wrested the World Boxing Association (WBA) featherweight title from the South African—his fifth world title in four weight divisions.
Judges Levi Martinez, Paul Caiz Jr. and Francisco Martinez scored it identically at 49-46, giving Donaire the first, third and fourth rounds and giving both fighters 10 points in the fifth.
The bout was stopped due to an “accidental headbutt” which left Donaire’s left eye swollen and cut.
According to the WBA rules, if such an incident happens after four rounds, the match goes to the scorecards. Had the fight been stopped due to the cut before the fourth round, it would have been declared a draw.
The technical decision favoring Donaire disappointed many sportswriters who said the Filipino boxer was cut by a punch—not by a clash of heads.
Had the referee and judges seen it that way, they would have awarded the fight to Vetyeka as Donaire could no longer continue.
Donaire apologizes
“I’m very sorry, I didn’t give you a proper win,” Donaire told boxing commentator Larry Merchant in Filipino, who had asked him to repeat his remarks in English.
Donaire apologized to his fans for the abrupt win although Merchant assured him he did very well.
“At the end of the fight, you seem so apologetic. But from my viewpoint you did (well). You were accidentally headbutted and that caused the problem,” Merchant said.
Donaire promised to give Vetyeka a rematch, probably by November, according to Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, and probably also here, Donaire said.
Rematch in November
All Vetyeka could say in the postfight presser was he was “very disappointed.”
“I heard the promoter mention a rematch in November and see you in November so that we could clear the air,” Vetyeka said through trainer Andile Sidinile. “But it’s proper for me to say congratulations for now.”
Controversial headbutt
The headbutt happened in the final seconds of the first round, which was otherwise uneventful. Donaire ducked and reacted violently as blood spurted from his eyes.
The ring physician checked the cut and Pabon asked Donaire if he could still make it. Each time, Donaire said he could.
In the second round, the doctor was again called in to check but Donaire decided to push ahead.
“I told the referee, ‘No, no, no. I don’t wanna do this to my fans,’” Donaire said.
Knockdown
In the third, Donaire, shuffling his feet and throwing combinations, caught Vetyeka by the ropes, punishing him hard enough to force the South African to hold on to the ropes and stay on his feet.
In the fourth, Donaire floored Vetyeka with a right and a smashing left to the jaw. The referee gave the South African a mandatory eight-count and the doctor once again checked Donaire’s wound.
The round ended.
Moments later, Donaire said something to Pabon, who then spoke to the judges. It turned out he was telling the officials to ring the bell for the fifth round.
Soon after, he stopped the fight.
Party till morning
Donaire, who partied away to the morning hours with the famed Filipino band The Dawn, said he hoped he did his country proud.
“At least I’m bringing home the crown,” he said.
The fight started off slow but Donaire floored his opponent in the second round with a right hook. Another left hook connected in the fourth, knocking Vetyeka down again and sending the crowd wild.
Donaire admitted he was disappointed with how the fight ended.
Blood in his eye
“It’s disappointing that things ended the way it did and hopefully we can do it again,” he said.
“When I got headbutted, I was really out of it, I didn’t know what the hell was going on,” he said.
“There was nothing else that I could do, I was at the biggest disadvantage,” he said, adding that blood and medicine kept getting into his eye.
“I wanted to keep going but my dad kept saying: ‘You’re at a disadvantage, you’re bleeding like crazy.’”
Donaire was referring to his once-estranged father Nonito Sr., who was head trainer for the fight.
Vetyeka disappointed
“The Filipino Flash” improved his record to 33-2 with 21 knockouts. Bouncing back from a loss to Cuban Guillermo Rigondeaux in April 2013, he knocked out the Armenian southpaw Darchinyan in November of 2013.
Vetyeka fell to 26-3 with 16 knockouts.
“I’m so disappointed about how the fight ended and I don’t know what to say,” Vetyeka said at the press conference.
“The promoter is mentioning a match in November so that we can clear the air,” he said. “But for now I think it is proper for me to say congratulations to Nonito Donaire.”
No headbutt
Some website commentators were outraged by the handling of the fight, including the referee’s decision that Donaire had suffered a headbutt.
Chris Williams of boxingnews24.com wrote:
“They said it was from a headbutt. However, there was no clash of heads. Instead of a head clash, Donaire was nailed by a right hand on his left eye and this caused him to go down. In slow motion replay it shows that Donaire was cut from a punch rather than a head clash, so the referee blew the call.
Williams added: “If he had ruled it correctly then Vetyeka would have won the fight because Donaire wouldn’t have been able to continue … Vetyeka got jobbed in this fight.”
‘Downright shameful’
Scott Christ of badlefthook.com (BLH) said Donaire’s win came after “a bizarre, anticlimactic and maybe even downright shameful turn of events.”
BLH had Donaire ahead slightly, 38-37, after four rounds.
Donaire must have felt a sense of urgency when he came out “gunning in rounds three and four,” Christ said.
He added: “Why the urgency? Because it wasn’t clear if Pabon ever ruled the nasty gash that opened on Donaire’s left eye at the end of round one as being caused by a headbutt, meaning Donaire may have felt he was in imminent danger of the cut stopping the fight, resulting in a TKO loss.”
Christ said the technical decision win given to Donaire had outraged the media and the fans.
“This is questionable at best, flat-out corrupt at worst, and given boxing’s history and reputation, anyone might be forgiven for expecting the worst,” he said.
He also said: “Something was wrong with what we saw today. I can’t say with any certainty what that something is, but if you’re not smelling a rat or a big box of fish carcasses right now, I can’t tell what sport it is that you’re watching anymore.”
Toe-to-toe
Also in Saturday’s card, unbeaten Russian Evgeny Gradovich survived 12 rounds of toe-to-toe action against Alexander Miskirtchian of Belgium and retained his IBF featherweight title.
Gradovich improved to 19-0, while Jamaica’s unbeaten Nicholas Walters knocked out Darchinyan in the fifth round, improving his record to 24-0 with 20 knockouts.–With a report from AFP