Nonito Donaire acknowledged after the fact that he had problems figuring out challenger Reymart Gaballo on Saturday night in Carson, California.
Of course, it was nothing one big punch couldn’t solve.
Donaire, the 39-year-old WBC bantamweight titleholder, stopped a capable fighter 14 years his junior with a viciously perfect left hook to the body with one second remaining in the fourth round of his first title defense.
The victory brought him a step closer to realizing his late-career goal: To become undisputed 118-pound champion.
Donaire (42-6, 28 KOs) did indeed have some trouble with Gaballo (24-1, 20 KOs) before the stoppage.
The champion’s fellow Filipino boxed carefully and well, which made it difficult for Donaire to land meaningful punches. And Gaballo, perhaps quicker than Donaire, landed enough of his own shots to make the fight competitive.
However, Donaire began to assert himself in Round 3, when he landed several hard right hands. And he picked up where he left off in the following round, in which he caught Gaballo with more rights.
Then, with about 15 seconds to go in Round 4, Gaballo threw a right and Donaire responded with a monster shot to his opponent’s right side and he dropped to one knee. Gaballo stood up at the count of eight but, still in pain, he grimaced, went back down and was counted out.
The official time was 2:59 of Round 4.
“My wife [and fitness trainer] and dad were saying, ‘Go to the body, go to the body,’” Donaire said. “I had to set it up by bouncing up and down and left to right until I opened up the body. Then I landed the left hook. …
“A lot of it was rights throughout the earlier rounds and then the left hook to the body [landed] because he didn’t expect that from me.”
Did Donaire think the fight was over at that moment?
“I thought he would get up because I know he has a big heart,” he said. “But that was a very tremendous punch that landed on him.”
Donaire now has his sights set on his bigger goal, to win all four major bantamweight belts.
His fellow titleholders are John Riel Casimero of the Philippines (WBO) and pound-for-pounder Naoya Inoue (IBF and WBC), who outpointed Donaire in a hard-fought, competitive defense that preceded Donaire’s knockout of Nordine Oubaali to win the title in May.
Donaire would love to get another shot at Inoue, assuming the Japanese star beats Aran Dipaen this coming Tuesday in Tokyo.
“That’s Richard Schaefer’s, my promoter’s, job to do,” he said. “Me and Inoue have been respectful to each other. … I believe Richard is going to make it happen, no doubt.”
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On the undercard, junior welterweight contender Brandun Lee (24-0, 22 KOs) of La Quinta, California, stopped Juan Heraldez (16-2-1, 10 KOs) of Las Vegas in the seventh round of a scheduled 10-rounder.
And Cody Crowley (20-0, 9 KOs) of Peterborough, Ontario, Canada survived a knockdown to upset longtime welterweight contender Kudratillo Abdukakhorov (18-1, 10 KOs) of Uzbekistan by a unanimous decision in a 10-round fight.
The scores were 98-91, 97-92 and 95-94.