Donaire wins over scared Argentinian opponent

As exciting as Nonito Donaire Jr. had been in recent fights, it still takes two to tango. In front of a near-capacity crowd of 4,425 at The Theater at Madison Square Garden, Pound for Pound elite Donaire won all 12 rounds on all three judges' scorecards over a highly tentative Omar Narvaez of Cordoba, Argentina, to retain his bantamweight world title. It was a bore of a fight, the kind that leaves a sour taste in boxing fans' mouths and makes future fights difficult to sell. It was not Donaire's fault, however. "The Filipino Flash" (now 27-1, 18 KO) of San Leandro, Calif., by way of Bohol, Philippines, punched and punched at the awkward Narvaez (35-1-2, 19 KO), who was content to just survive the 12-round distance. By the final round, restless fans were chanting expletives as Donaire dropped his hands in an attempt to bait Narvaez into engaging. "I did my best, I'm sorry it didn't come out the way we all wanted," said Donaire, who thanked the large Filipino-American contingent that came out for his first bout in The Big Apple. "I have a lot of respect for him, [Argentina has Sergio] Martinez, [Marcos] Maidana, they all come to fight. I felt as great as he was. He didn't come here to fight today." "He didn't fight, he didn't even try to fight," said a disgusted Cameron Dunkin, Donaire's long-time manager. "But he's a 36-year-old man in his first big fight out of the country. I think he fought like a guy who didn't want to get hurt." Dunkin said that WBC super bantamweight champ Toshiaki Nishioka of Japan, WBO super bantamweight champ Jorge Arce of Mexico, and Puerto Rican 122-pound contender Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. were in the running for Donaire's next opponent. Narvaez's behavior post-fight was just as disengaging. After the fight, he went right to his dressing room and did not come out to answer questions from the press, just as he avoided media attention for most of his stay in New York. Donaire's trainer Roberto Garcia said that he focused on keeping Donaire on track in between rounds and combating Donaire's growing frustration with his opponent's unwillingness to fight. "He was getting bored. He actually told us, 'I'm… bored already.' I said, 'OK, Nonito, this guy don't [sic] want to fight. I don't want you to get careless and lose your head and make a mistake because he is a very experienced fighter." Rachel, Donaire's wife, was also bored with Narvaez's performance. "If we knew Narvaez wouldn't fight, we might as well have gotten a statue in Central Park to fight Nonito tonight," said Rachel. "I think he threw about ten punches the whole fight." The couple are scheduled to remarry on November 11, 2011. — KBK, GMA News