Nonito "The Filipino Flash" turned back the hands of time with a vintage performance to win the World Boxing Council bantamweight championship with a fourth-round knockout of Nordine Oubaali of France at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.
Donaire said coming into the fight that Oubaali is such a textbook fighter that he knows exactly where to catch him. The Filipino Flash studied his options in the first two rounds and attacked when he had the distance all figured out.
Oubaali started the match with a lot of activity as he threw multiple right jabs to set up his straight. Donaire was more economical with his punches but he landed solid right straights later in the opener.
The second was similar to the first with Oubaali doing much of the pressing. He was throwing more but Donaire was trying to figure out his timing as he was sitting on his counters, adding a little bit of power as he got more and more confident.
And then, in a flash, Donaire reminded everyone why he will go down as one of the greats.
Donaire scored a knockdown with 45 seconds remaining in the third round from his vaunted left hook. Oubaali managed to beat the count and even rocked the Filipino with a left straight but Donaire scored an ever bigger knockdown right at the bell with another left hook.
The referee deemed that the punch came before the bell and gave Oubaali an eight-count. The defending champion was on wobbly legs and appeared out of it but was allowed to continue.
The round break, however, was not enough for Oubaali to recover as Donaire jumped on him in the fourth round. A hook-straight-uppercut combination downed the French fighter for the third time with the referee waving off the count.
The official time was 1:52 in the fourth round.
History made ✅ @filipinoflash is champion again! #OubaaliDonaire pic.twitter.com/Kjwgq9WqGp
— SHOWTIME Boxing (@ShowtimeBoxing) May 30, 2021
"The king has returned," Donaire proclaimed after the win as he broke his own record in becoming the oldest fighter to win a world championship in the bantamweight division at 38 years of age. He took the distinction away from fellow Filipino legend Gerry Peñalosa, who was 35 when he won the WBO bantamweight crown with a knockout against Jhonny Gonzalez back in 2007, in 2018 when he beat Ryan Burnett in the World Boxing Super Series just 13 days before his 36th birthday.
"The human body is an incredible machine if you take care of it and we can only be as strong as our mind can be," Donaire said after the match. There were a lot of questions about ring rust heading into this match as he was coming off an 18-month layoff after losing to Naoya Inoue in Japan, but he showed that he was able to take care of his body well during his time away from the ring.
Donaire raised his record to 41 wins with 27 knockouts against six defeats while Oubaali suffered the first loss of his career in 18 fights.
"I knew what his pattern was," Donaire explained after the fight where he landed a whopping 68 of 134 power punches. "I knew what he was going to do. He was showing his disadvantage in terms of his weakness and that's why I got to counter him with the left hook."
Asked what his next plans would be, Donaire made it clear that he only had a single target in mind: unified WBA and IBF bantamweight champion Inoue
"That's why I wanted to win this fight," he said. "The only thing I have not accomplished is becoming undisputed and the next phase is getting the rematch."
Inoue is scheduled to defend his titles against his IBF mandatory challenger Michael Dasmariñas of the Philippines with WBO bantamweight John Riel Casimero also chasing a mega-fight with The Monster.