LOS ANGELES – It was hoped that Jeffrey Mathebula would become the first to record the feat on the weekend when he met Nonito Donaire at the Home Depot Centre here for the IBF and WBO super-bantamweight championships, but it wasn’t to be.

In front of a relatively small but hostile crowd, Mathebula went down on scores of 117-110, 118-109 and 119-108 –  margins which many considered to be way too wide –  to relinquish his crown.

Coming into the fight with a clear height advantage over his Filipino foe, it was expected that Mathebula would make Donaire work and that’s exactly what happened as the “Filipino Flash” fought off the front foot and came at the South African, looking to land hard early.

Donaire managed to land his most powerful weapon, a left hook, to the side of Mathebula’s head, right at the end of the fourth round but the “Mongoose” recovered well and got to work in the next few rounds, with his trainer Nick Durandt attributing the recovery to the fact that his fighter was well-conditioned.

“It was Jeffrey’s conditioning that brought him back after that knockdown. If it wasn’t for that, he wouldn’t have recovered,” said Durandt before adding that Mathebula showed plenty of heart in going the distance.

“It was a good fight.
“He recovered well from the knockdown and he also showed heart.
“That’s what you want from your guys and that is for them to show heart.”

Round six proved to be one of the most entertaining of the bout with both fighters landing  some good punches and heading into the later rounds the fight still looked fairly even.
A big right hand from Donaire in the 11th also led to discomfort for Mathebula after one of his teeth was cracked.

It may have looked like Mathebula allowed his work rate to drop at stages throughout the fight, but   studying the statistics, the lanky fighter not only threw more but was also more accurate than his opponent by almost 80 punches according to CompuBox information supplied.

Having fought the last few rounds in some discomfort – many at ringside thought that Mathebula’s jaw might have been broken – it was understandable that the South African didn’t have too many words to share afterwards but he did say that he would discuss the next step with his promoter Branco Milenkovic and Durandt.

“We’ll sit down talk with my promoter and manager and try to get it back by the end of the year maybe next year.

It was a tough fight and he can fire. I’ll bounce back from this defeat,” said Mathebula who admitted that Donaire packs some power.

It may not have been the fairytale ending that Team Mathebula – and fight fans back home –  had been hoping for, but it was enough of a showing to confirm the fact that South Africa produces good fighters in the division and just as Mathebula says he will bounce back and hopefully reclaim his crown in the not too distant future.