By Dennis "dSource" Guillermo

Former three division world champion Nonito Donaire (31-2, 20KOs) was surprised that he didn't get a decision victory last Saturday night at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Guillermo Rigondeaux (12-0, 8KOs) unified the WBA/WBO super bantamweight titles with scores of 114-113, 115-112 and 116-111. Donaire felt he should have won a close decision or at the very least the fight should have been scored a draw.

The 'Filipino Flash" will now get surgery to repair some tendon damage in his right shoulder, and he plans to stay away from boxing for a few months in order to spend time with his wife and their newborn son.

"I wanted to pressure him, but the problem is I didn't [step on the] pedal in the last two rounds. I thought I did enough to win this fight. But again, the decision was from the judges. At least it should have been a draw. If nobody had to win that fight it should have been a draw, but if somebody had to win that fight it should have been me because I made that fight happen. I don't want to be a sore loser because he was an excellent fighter, but he didn't want to engage. That was the problem, he didn't want to engage," Donaire said.

"I thought I could catch him with one punch and fell in love with that. I thought I could catch him but that was....it is what it is. You just have to go back to the drawing board."

"I wanted to go in there [and go after him in the last round] but he caught me with that punch [that damaged my right eye]. In those first few seconds I was sleeping in there and he caught me with it. That was stupid on my part. I think that if I didn't do that [and get caught with that punch] I think I probably would have won that fight." 

Dennis 'dSource' Guillermo is a prolific boxing writer. Follow him on , and for an archive of his work . You e-mail him at