Part of being a great boxer is overcoming adversity.
There were good examples of that on HBO Boxing After Dark card in Texas last night. Nonito Donaire did not look sharp at all coming off his 1st loss in over 12 years.
Vic Darchinyan was beating him to the punch and the scorecards, when Donaire reached down deep in the 9th round and pulled out a TKO win.
We won’t know if this version of Donaire was an aberration or his prime is over, but what we do know is he has heart and he showed it in the late rounds.
We know Mikey Garcia is in his prime, but that didn’t stop him from being knocked down by Rocky Martinez on a beautiful counter shot in the 2nd round of their fight.
But, Garcia kept his cool and systematically beat down Martinez before paralyzing him with a picture perfect body shot in the 8th round.
Bigger business lies ahead for both Donaire and Garica in 2014.