Pinoy Donaire battles Rigondeaux in today’s unification bout in NY

Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire and Guillermo “The Jackal” Rigondeaux of Cuba easily made weight during the official weigh-in for their unification showdown slated today at the Radio City Music Hall in New York.

Donaire (31W-1L, 20 KOs) , the WBO super bantamweight champion, weighed in at 121.6 lbs. while Rigondeaux (11W-0L, 8 KOs), the WBA title holder, weighed in at 121.5 lbs., both below the 122-pound division limit.

The protagonists showed their mutual animosity by staring at each other for more than a minute after the weigh-in.

A capacity crowd of 6,145 will witness this bout. Top Rank Promotions announced in a press release that the last remaining ticket for this highly anticipated fight has been sold.

This is only the second time Radio City Music Hall has ever hosted a professional boxing event in its 82-year history. The first was on January 15, 2000, when Roy Jones Jr. defended his unified light heavyweight world championship against David Telesco by unanimous decision.

Donaire’s fight comes eight days after Brian Viloria lost his WBO/WBA flyweight titles by split decision to Juan Francisco Estrada of Mexico in Macau and six days after Maclom Tunacao lost by 12th round TKO to WBC Bantamweight champion Shinsuke Yamanaka in Tokyo.

Rigondeaux, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, will be gunning not just for Donaire’s WBO belt, but the Filipino’s lofty number five ranking among the best pound for pound boxers in the world.