Carl Frampton got the job done today in Belfast. A few competitive moments aside, the Irishman outclassed Nonito Donaire over twelve rounds. It was a real solid performance. Zolani Tete also picked up a win in the co-main event.
Both men looked pretty sharp in a close opening round. They both took turns pressing, but I thought Nonito Donaire (38-5, 24 KOs) did better to the body and with his uppercuts. Carl Frampton (25-1, 14 KOs) was more aggressive in response and probably won the second. Unfortunately, the best shot he landed was a headbutt in the corner that caused some real swelling under the Filipino’s left eye. Nonito looked a little less fresh at the end of the second and that definitely carried into the third. He was just a little slow and a little easier to hit at 35 than he used to be. Carl Frampton put on a boxing clinic in the third.
Through four rounds the early dream of a quality, competitive fight was fading fast. After schooling Donaire in the third, Frampton decided to beat him up a bit in the fourth. He kept the Filipino Flash against the ropes for most of the second half of the round and went to work. Nonito did manage to stabilize his fight in the fifth though. He didn’t win it, but he kept Frampton away with footwork for the first half of the round and snuck in some nice uppercuts in the second half. Frampton’s pressure and better volume of work still carried it though. Donaire might have stolen the sixth on a few nice body shots, however. The Jackal just didn’t get much done that round.
I had Frampton up four rounds to two at the halfway point.
Nonito Donaire landed his best uppercuts of the fight in the seventh round. He might even have briefly wobbled Frampton. It still wasn’t enough to win the round as all the rest of the work came from the Irishman, but it was a reminder that Donaire was still capable in there. His face was increasingly a mess, however, thanks to both punches and headbutts. The eighth was slower as Frampton chose to box. Most of these rounds were competitive, but Carl Frampton was just winning them. The ninth was the same story.
One of the more interesting quirks to this fight was how Carl Frampton was world’s better at range despite having the shorter reach. Inside Nonito could work his hooks and uppercuts. Outside he got little done at all. Frampton took advantage of this over the last three rounds to box himself to comfortable victory. Donaire did have a big rally to end the eleventh and maybe take the round, but he couldn’t follow it up with the epic twelfth that he would have needed to steal the fight.
I scored the fight 117-111 for Carl Frampton. Official scores came back all the same with me at 117-111 as well.
Zolani Tete (27-3, 21 KOs) had an easy time defending his WBO bantamweight title in the co-main event over 42 year old Omar Narvaez (48-3-3, 25 KOs). Narvaez has been one of the more underrated fighters of the last generation, but twice now he has earned a fight on a bigger stage and basically not shown up. Just like he did back in 2011 on HBO against the main event’s Nonito Donaire, Narvaez only worried about protecting himself without ever trying to actually win. Tete did what he could and worked with what was available, but putting in an exciting performance against a mobile heavy bag is next to impossible.
