The “Filipino Flash,” and four-division world champion Nonito Donaire (38-4, 24 KO’s) came to San Antonio and showed some of the flash he had in the past as he won a unanimous decision against Ruben Garcia Hernandez (22-3, 9 KO’s) from Mexico.
Garcia was a replacement for the initial undefeated fighter who was supposed to fight against Donaire, and he held his own throughout the fight, but the Donaire flash was too much for Garcia to ever take advantage of. After the fight, Donaire commended Garcia for stepping up to fight him, after his two original undefeated opponents decided to withdraw, for some reason or another.
It is hard to believe that it has been four years since Donaire’s loss to Guillermo Rigondeaux (17-0, 11 KO’s), who happened to be ringside yelling instructions to Hernandez, with Erislandy Lara (24-2,14 KO’s) sitting by his side.
Rigondeaux and Lara were guests at the fight to see fellow Cuban fighter, Yunier Dorticos (22-0 21 KO’S), the current WBA Cruiserweight champion on the main event on the same card. Dorticos defended his title against Dmitry Kudyrashov (21-2, 20 KO’) with a crushing second round KO against the Russian.
Now that Donaire has signed with Richard Schaefer and Ringtar Sports, he plans on moving his way back into fighting the best in the bantamweight and featherweight division after winning seven out of his nine fights since the big match against Rigondeaux.
Donaire was happy about his performance and said “I boxed very well, which is something I haven't done in a long time and I kept it up the entire fight." Most of the crowd were there to see Donaire, and with this win, he captured the vacant WBC Silverweight title and is on his way back into world title contention down the road.