Yahoo! picks Nonito Donaire as their Fighter of the Year

source: gmanetwork.com

A few days after picking Robert Garcia as their Trainer of the Year, Yahoo! Sports, through respected boxing columnist Kevin Iole, has named Garcia’s top student, Nonito Donaire, as their Fighter of the Year.

Nonito Donaire had a busy year with four fights in total. He jumped to the super bantamweight division after winning world titles in the flyweight and bantamweight divisions and an interim title in the super flyweight division.

Donaire beat out fighters such as Brian Viloria, Adrien Broner, Juan Manuel Marquez, Robert Guerrero, Andre Ward, and Danny Garcia for the honor. One distinguishing factor was that Donaire fought more than all these fighters in 2012.

According to Iole, Donaire “showed the complete package, using speed, power, accuracy, ring generalship, defense and courage to post decision wins over Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. and Jeffrey Mathebula and stoppages over Toshiaki Nishioka and Jorge Arce.”

Iole added that another determining factor was Donaire’e enrollment under the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association program which means he could be subjected to undergo anti-doping testing 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

This is the third time that a Filipino fighter won the website’s Fighter of the Year honors since Yahoo! started giving out this award in 2007. Eight-division champion Manny Pacquiao won the honor back to back in 2008 and 2009.

source: gmanetwork.com