Bob Velin, USA TODAY Sports
12:39AM EDT October 14. 2012 - Nonito Donaire dropped Toshiaki Nishioka with a straight right hand counterpunch in the ninth round Saturday night before Nishioki's corner stepped in and stopped it at 1:54 in a fight that Donaire dominated from the opening bell.
Donaire, as expected, retained his WBO super bantamweight title with the victory at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. He has vacated his IBF title earlier this week.
Earlier in the fight, before Donaire knocked Nishioka down for the first time in the sixth round, the fans booed often at Nishioka's unwillingness to engage with Donaire. They had just witnessed a brutal, all-action co-feature fight in which Brandon Rios knocked out Mike Alvarado, and were in no mood for a lack opf action.
"We knew we could end the fight with one punch, and we knew if he made a mistake, we could get hjim and that's what happened," said Donaire. "He made the mistake to reach in, and I got him with the uppercut. My hand was hurting a little bit, so I couldn't finish him off (with my left), so I had to go with my right."
Asked why other fighters don't engage with him, Donaire said, "When you do engage and you open up yourself, Nonito is a surgeon. I can pick him apart, and once that surgeon comes in, that demolition man, I can knock people out."
Donaire (30-1, 19 KOs), one of boxing's top knockout artists, was asked by HOB's Max Kellerman about fighting Guillermo Rigondeaux. He said the undefeated Cuban defector would bore him at this point in his career. "Have you seen my last few fights? This fight I was so aware, so focused because I know what (Nishioka) has, and I want to feel that going into the ring.
They have to prove themselves to me to go at it."
The loss was the first for 36-year-old Nishioka (39-5-3, 24 KOs) in more than eight years, and was the first time he had been stopped since his second professional fight in 1995.
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