It was an exhausting but awesome fight to watch according to ESPN’s Dan Rafael on his Twitter post. The fight could be a candidate for another Fight of the Year, said Rafael, who posted the final score at 116-110 x 2, 117-109.
It was a lucky night for Donaire, who becomes the beneficiary of the 122 pound WBO title when it was vacated by former foe Guillermo Rigondeaux of Cuba for inactivity.
Donaire was poised to face WBA Super Bantamweight Champion Scott Quigg of England but negotiations between Donaire’s promoter Bob Arum and Quigg’s promoter failed to gain traction.
Donaire is recovering from his devastating loss to Nicholas Walters of Jamaica last year via TKO in the sixth round at the StubHub Center in Carson, California, where he lost his WBA Super featherweight title.
Since his loss to Walters, Donaire has fought twice, winning via TKO in both fights. The first was against William Prado of Brazil which ended in a TKO in round 2. It was followed by another TKO win, also in round 2 against Anthony Settoul of France. Read more:
With the win, Donaire improved his record to 36-3-0 with 23 KOs while Juarez dropped to 17-4-0 with 13 KOs,.
Meanwhile in the Donaire-Juarez co-featured fight, Donaire’s stablemate at Top Rank Promotions Felix Verdejo disposed his challenger Josenilson Dos Santos in round 2 with a massive overhead right to retain his WBO Latino Lightweight title.
