The 40-year-old Donaire has now suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time in his illustrious career.

The legendary Filipino actor Nonito Donaire appears to have finally succumbed to old age. On the undercard of Errol Spence vs. Terence Crawford in Las Vegas on Saturday, the former unified champion lost a tough decision to Mexican native Alexandro Santiago, giving him the WBC bantamweight title.

The judges gave the Filipino champion every opportunity to win, but in the end Santiago (28-3-5, 14 KOs) emerged victorious with scores of 116-112 (x2) and 115-113 to win the title for the first time in his career. Since he became pro in 2001, Donaire (42-8, 8 KOs) had never dropped back-to-back contests. He also suffered a devastating second-round knockout loss to Naoya Inoue in their June 2022 rematch following the initial fight, in which Donaire broke Inoue’s orbital bone despite losing on the scorecards.

The action got off to a very competitive start, and Donaire had the first moment that changed a fight. Donaire launched one of his signature left hooks early in the third round, appearing to shock Santiago and causing a gash over his right eye. However, he was unable to take advantage in any meaningful way, and Santiago was fully recovered by the beginning of the following round.

After that, Santiago dominated the fight with the exception of a headbutt in the sixth round that caused a nearly identical cut to appear over his left eye. Donaire occasionally appeared to be overwhelmed by Santiago’s work rate (609 punches thrown to 495 received), and by the last few rounds, the Mexican was firing and connecting at will.

After achieving his dream, Santiago, who had looked up to Donaire as a young fighter, broke down in tears.

Through a translator, Santiago remarked, “This moment right now is so difficult to explain.” “Winning this title is fantastic after all the hard work we put in to get here. It has been an honour to battle a legend like Nonito, who just expressed his gratitude to me by saying, “Thank you, thank you for giving me this fantastic fight.

Despite the setback, Donaire insisted he doesn’t want to retire, but he will need to talk to his wife and trainer, Rachel, about the topic.

Because I adore the sport so much, Donaire declared, “I will continue.” “However, the thing I mentioned to my wife, along with who has the word, whether I do or not, and other such things. We simply need to discuss it in the locker room again and decide where to go from there. There were certain things that just didn’t trigger, but overall, I felt good. My biggest mistake was that I chose not to fire the weapon.

Donaire objected when asked if such was a result of his advanced age.

I strongly object to that.

The outcome and his face, which was red and swollen as a result of Santiago’s relentless combinations in the later rounds, contradicted each other.