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http://www.boxingscene.com/donaire-nishioka-rios-alvarado-huge-night-action--55758
http://www.fightnews.com/Boxing/will-donaires-ko-punch-return-tonight-141932
http://www.notifight.com/artman2/publish/Reporte_7/Donaire_y_Nishioka_listos_en_Carson.php

report

Donaire makes case, defends titles
Filipino star knocks out Nishioka. Rios gets a KO vs. Alvarado.
By Robert Morales, Press-Telegram Staff Writer Updated: 10/13/2012 11:14:28 PM PDT[1]
CARSON - One of the things talked about during the promotion for the super bantamweight title 
fight between champion Nonito Donaire and former champion Toshiaki Nishioka was that Donaire 
had not had a knockout in his past three fights after having knocked out nine of his past 10 
opponents.
Well, Donaire put an end to that non-knockout streak by stopping Nishioka at 1:54 of the ninth 
round Saturday to retain his two belts before a sellout crowd of 7,665 at Home Depot Center.

It wasn't easy, as Japan's Nishioka fought a very defensive fight, rarely opening up long enough 
to allow Donaire to penetrate that defense. But Doniare decked Nishioka in the sixth with a big 
left uppercut. Nishioka got up and fought back, landing two crisp left crosses for probably his 
best punches of the night.
But in the ninth, with Nishioka trying to put something together by throwing some quick, but light, 
shots at Donaire with Donaire on the ropes, Donaire just smacked Nishioka to the canvas with a hard 
right cross, and that was all she wrote.
"I was just playing possum to see what he would do," Donaire said.

Donaire (30-1, 19 KOs), of San Leandro via the Philippines, noticed that after he floored Nishioka 
in the sixth that Nishioka began to fire back more than he had been.
"I was just trying to open him up," Donaire said. "When you do engage and open yourself up, Nonito 
is a surgeon and Nonito can pick you apart. Then the demolition man comes in and I knock them out. 
I have a lot of weapons. I was in full control of the fight."

Nishioka (39-5-3) got up after tasting the canvas in the ninth and told referee Raul Caiz he was 
fine, but as the fighters were about to start fighting again, one of Nishioka's cornermen started 
to rush into the ring to tell Caiz to stop the fight. Seeing that, Caiz did.
"Speed was the big difference," Nishioka said. "Nonito has a very powerful left hand. I never saw 
the uppercut."
Donaire said he hurt his left hand with that uppercut in the sixth, and that's why he didn't use 
it all that much thereafter.
For six of the eight rounds, fans roundly booed the inaction. That was in part because of the 
unbelievable main event between Brandon Rios and Mike Alvarado in the junior welterweight semi-main 
event. "Put Ali-Frazier after Rios-Alvarado and fans would be booing," said Top Rank Inc. chairman 
Bob Arum.

Anybody who knew anything about Rios and Alvarado knew their fight figured to be a ring war. That 
it was. Through the first six rounds, it was difficult to tell which fighter had landed the most of 
so many vicious shots to the head. But Rios had a real strong sixth round, and he came out in the 
seventh and just smashed Alvarado around the ring.
After having watched Alvarado absorb some very hard shots to the head that had Alvarado stumbling 
around near and then on the ropes, referee Pat Russell waved off the fight at 1:57 of the round, 
Rios winning via technical knockout.

The fight was slated for 10 rounds, and it figures to get some votes for Fight of the Year even 
though there were no knockdowns. "Of course, it's Fight of the Year," Arum said.
It was a fight that could have been contested in a phone booth because the fighters were never 
more than a foot or so away from each other. Neither took a step back, until Alvarado did in the 
fateful seventh. It was that kind of fight, where heavy punches upon heavy punches were landed.
"He tested my chin, I handled it and I'm ready for the next fight," said Oxnard's Rios, a former 
lightweight world champion now 31-0-1 with 23 knockouts.
Both fighters appeared a bit hurt at times during the first six rounds.

"I'm a warrior," said Rios, who said his great conditioning helped him win such a brutal fight. 
"He got me a little stung, but I didn't show it."
Rios, 26, thought perhaps Russell could have given Alvarado a bit more time to get right out of 
the assault he was doling out. "Maybe he should have been given him a little more time because 
he's a warrior," Rios said.

Alvarado, of Denver, suffered his first loss and is now 33-1. He wished Russell would have let 
the fight go on. "He shook me up a little bit, but I thought that was stopped a little too 
early," said the 32-year-old Alvarado, whose puffy face showed what he had just gone through. 
"I was surprised about it."
Arum said that if Manny Pacquiao gets by Juan Manuel Marquez in December, he would like to pit 
Rios against Pacquiao.

Jose Benavidez (17-0) of Phoenix was very hurt in the eighth round and final round, but he 
remained unbeaten with a unanimous decision over Pavel Miranda (19-8-1) of Tijuana in the super 
lightweight division. All three scores were 79-73.
After three vicious rounds, the lightweight bout between Jose Roman (14-0-1) of Garden Grove 
and Javier Garcia of Oxnard was declared a draw when Garcia (8-2-2) couldn't answer the bell 
for the fourth round because of a cut caused by a head-butt.
California commission rules state that if a fighter can't continue because of a cut caused by 
a head-butt, it will be a draw if four rounds were not complete; in that case, it would have 
gone to the scorecards. Their bout was scheduled for eight rounds.
Also, Evgeny "The Mexican Russian" Gradovich of Oxnard won an eight-round unanimous decision 
over Jose Angel Beranza (35-25-2) of Mexico City in the featherweight division. The scores 
were 79-73, 79-73 and 80-72.