Nonito Donaire suffers a TKO loss to Japanese foe

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

Filipino boxing star Nonito Donaire lost his shot at the World Boxing Association bantamweight belt after suffering a surprising technical knockout loss to Japanese rising star Riku Masuda during their title eliminator on March 15, 2026, at Yokohama Buntai Arena in Japan.

The loss marked Donaire’s second consecutive defeat in three months, leading to speculation that the Filipino boxing icon’s time to hang up his gloves might have come for good.

The “Filipino Flash” showed vintage form in the early rounds, catching the younger Japanese pug with his signature booming left-hook counters every time Masuda came forward to apply immense pressure.

Aside from his left hooks, Donaire also did a decent job of controlling the distance after landing more jabs than Masuda.

However, an accidental clash of heads halted Donaire’s momentum as he sustained a cut on his face, making it hard for him to anticipate Masuda’s incoming punches.

From that point, Donaire no longer moved or threw punches as he did in the early rounds, absorbing overwhelming punishment from Masuda, who pushed the pace and never let up on the pressure.

The first pivotal moment came in the seventh round when Masuda scored the fight’s first knockdown, tagging Donaire with a snappy right straight to widen his gap on the official scorecards.

The next round ended the fight after Donaire’s corner threw in the towel at the 1:45 mark of Round 8 after he absorbed heavy damage from a Masuda barrage.

Although Donaire was still standing, the amount of punishment he took in a 20-second window forced his corner to stop the fight to prevent him from taking more damage that could have led to a clean knockout.

Donaire showed disappointment after raising both hands, wondering why the towel was thrown, but the camp confirmed that they did not want their ward to absorb more damage.

With the loss, Donaire fell to 43 wins, 28 knockouts and 10 defeats, while Masuda improved to 10 wins, nine knockouts and one loss.