By Dan Ambrose: In Guillermo “The Jackal” Rigondeaux’s last two fights, he’s already well know his way to catching up and surpassing the popularity of former two division world champion Nonito Donaire despite having been fighting as a pro for only 3 years compared to the 11 years for Donaire.

Rigondeaux has won over a massive amount of boxing fans with his wins over Willie Casey and Rico Ramos. The Ramos victory was especially impressive because showcased Rigondeaux’s excellent body punching and counter punching ability.

Rigondeaux countered Ramos each he would attempt to throw anything and had him tied in knots afraid to throw any punches. It was a masterpiece performance by the two-time Olympic gold medalist Rigondeaux.

After the fight, Rigondeaux called out the long term pro Donaire but in the days following the fight, Donaire has made it clear that he wants no part of fighting Rigondeaux. Instead, Donaire prefers to go after easier marks, such as Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. and Jorge Arce.

As for Rigondeaux, if he can continue this rapid pace of attracting news fans, he should surpass Donaire’s popularity by next year at the latest in my view. Donaire will be heading downwards as soon as he faces Yuriorkis Gamboa and Juan Manuel Lopez.

Those guys will badly beat Donaire and his promoter Bob Arum will have to bring Donaire back down to the super bantamweight division where “The Jacka” Rigondeaux will be waiting to call Donaire out again and see if he’s willing at that time to be tested. I suspect he won’t want to fight Rigondeaux even then. It won’t matter, though, because Rigondeux will be a lot more popular by then and won’t even need to pick up Donaire’s scalp.