Donaire opponent Mathebula, unknown but dangerous

With the brouhaha over the Manny Pacquiao “loss” to Timothy Bradley behind us, it’s time to turn attention to the other Filipino boxing wonder, Nonito Donaire, World Boxing Organization (WBO) super bantamweight titlist.

With just about 10 days to go before the July 7 (July 8, Sunday, in Manila) super featherweight unification bout for Donaire’s WBO crown and South African Jeffrey Mathebula’s International Boxing Federation (IBF) title, much still has to be revealed about Mathebula.

The deal for the unification fight in the 122-pound weight category was firmed up only sometime in the third week of May. The speed with which all the principal figures came to an agreement to stage this bout is short of amazing. It’s not too often that a title fight involving Donaire, who’s in the current list of top fighters pound-for-pound, can be signed, sealed and delivered less than seven weeks before the fight.

The two will meet in the main bout of a card called “Boxing After Dark” on HBO at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California promoted by Top Rank.

ESPN’s Dan Rafael reported that Top Rank vice president Carl Moretti said, to highlight the importance of the bout, “Anytime you can unify a title it’s a good thing. And anytime you can unify the title in a meaningful division, which junior featherweight is, it’s an even better thing. It’s a legit fight. Mathebula is a little awkward and he’s taller than Donaire. Mathebula is always in shape and has no reservations about coming to the United States for the fight.”

Rafael reported that Donaire’s (and also Bradley’s) manager Cameron Dunkin said that Top Rank offered Donaire fights with former junior bantamweight champion Cristian Mijares and featherweight prospect Robert Marroquin. But Donaire wanted a better grade opponent – and so did HBO – leading them to Mathebula.

Dunkin was reported to have said that “it’s a fight Nonito asked for.” Top Rank was offering the Donaire camp other fighters but he (Donaire) wanted a unification fight. Nonito thought this guy (Mathebula) was a great fighter and would push him to the limit. Nonito said, “I want something that will fire me up and this guy presents me with a challenge.”

Just how much of a challenge does Mathebula offer? To begin with, for one of the very few times in his career, the 5’7” Donaire will face a taller fighter in Mathebula, 5’10”. Dunkin was quick to see the obvious danger and pointed out in Rafael’s report, “Nonito is usually the taller guy. He won’t be, for this fight, so I asked him if he wanted that problem. He said he did. He said, ‘I want somebody that will really motivate me’. Dunkin said, OK, I think this will motivate him but it’s a dangerous fight, a scary fight. But it’s what he wanted. He specifically asked for it.”

Donaire (28-1, 18 KOs) is 29 years old compared with Mathebula, who turned 33 on June 22 and has a record of 26-3-2, 14 KOs.

Like Donaire, Mathebula rose from the amateur ranks and competed for South Africa in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia in the men’s featherweight division. The lanky South African however failed to go past the second round of competitions, losing to Bekzat Sattarkhanov, according to the “Jeffrey Mathebula Biography and Olympic results”. Mathebula, known as “The Mongoose”, defeated Noureddine Madjhoud in the first round as reported by Anson Wainwright.

A look at Mathebula’s record shows that the only title fight outside of his country that he figured in was when he challenged Celestino Caballero for the World Boxing Association (WBA) super world and IBF world super bantamweight titles at the Roberto Duran Arena in Panama on April 30, 2009. Mathebula, who is ranked sixth among the super bantamweights by Ring, lost that fight via split decision which was of expectedly not well received by some boxing aficionados.

Mathebula’s last fight was on March 24, 2012, a title match against fellow South African Takalani Ndlovu for the IBF belt then held by the latter. Mathebula won the fight by split decision to avenge an earlier split decision loss on September 1, 2010 to Ndlovu in an IBF junior title eliminator.

Mathebula’s handlers seem to be supremely optimistic about their wards fight against Donaire, almost reminiscent of the confidence exuded by Bradley and his camp before the Pacquiao fight. Branco Milenkovic, who promotes Mathebula, was quoted by Rafael as having said, “If I believed Jeffrey had no chance to win this fight, I wouldn’t make the fight. He can win the fight and he is excited to make his first trip to America to fight a big fight and be on HBO…He’s (Donaire) a great fighter, but I believe Jeffrey will come to win.”