By Chris Williams: WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (28-1, 18 KO’s) might not necessarily be facing former IBF/WBA/WBC super flyweight champion Cristian Mijares (44-6-2, 20 KO’s) next on April 14th as reported. According to examiner.com, the 29-year-old Donaire is saying that his next opponent still hasn’t been picked out for him.

Donaire said “I haven’t seen any papers yet, so whoever wants to put in their application to be my next opponent go right ahead and I’ll just be sitting here playing Dragonage while ya’ll work it out.”

That sounds good and all but let’s be real about this, he isn’t going to fight the guys that boxing fans want to see him fight, so it looks like it’ll be the 30-year-old Mijares or someone like him. In other words, an aging fighter without much power and someone that won’t be a threat to give Donaire a lot of punishment like he suffered in winning the World Boxing Organization title over Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. last month. That was Donaire’s second consecutive poor performance where his power has disappeared on him. He held out a bloody hand after the fight, as if using this as a prop for an excuse but two fights in a row, the excuses are starting to run out. In moving up in weight, Donaire just doesn’t seem to have the power needed to do what he once did at flyweight and super flyweight. At super bantamweight, he’s just a guy with decent power that runs around the ring trying to showboat while getting tag hard every once in a while and eating a lot of jabs. The style makes him look almost comical because he’s no longer dominating like he was at flyweight and super flyweight.

The guys that boxing fans want to see him fight are Abner Mares, Guillermo Rigondeaux and to a much lesser extent Toshiaki Nishioka. Donaire doesn’t want to face the dangerous Rigondeaux, and his promoter will likely not make a fight between Donaire and Mares, because Mares fights for Golden Boy Promotions and Donaire with Top Rank.

Donaire will likely fight 32-year-old Jorge Arce later in the year in what would be a money fight for Donaire. Arce’s fans want to see the fight, as do Donaire’s fans.

Donaire’s next fight will be taking place at the Cowboy’s stadium in Arlington, Texas on April 14th. What this almost surely means is that Donaire will be fighting a Mexican fighter next, because Arum likes to load his Texas fight cards with a lot of Mexican fighters either going at it against each other or facing non-Mexicans. I think it’s almost a guarantee that Donaire will be fighting a Mexican fighter for this bout. #2 WBC super bantamweight contender Victor Terranzaz was previously mentioned as a possible opponent for Donaire, but it looks like he’s not going to get the shot. I can see why he might not get the fight because he’s an even bigger puncher than Vazquez Jr. and is a very solid at the weight. He recently beat Fernando Montiel and gave him a real beating. I doubt Arum wants to put Donaire in with a guy like that and see Donaire possibly stopped or at the minimum beaten up and having to struggle for a life and death victory. That’s why we’ll likely see a light hitting fighter moving up in weight like Mijares. I would sort of liked the Mijares-Donaire fight if it took place four years ago when Mijares was at his peak, but he’s been on the downhill slide since then with three losses.