Donaire wants Nishioka next, then will likely move up to 126 without facing Rigondeaux

By Boxing News - 07/08/2012 - Comments

Image: Donaire wants Nishioka next, then will likely move up to 126 without facing RigondeauxBy Chris Williams: After winning an unimpressive 12 round unanimous decision victory over IBF super bantamweight champion Jeffrey Mathebula (26-4-2, 14 KO’s) last night at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (29-1, 18 KO’s) said he’ll likely go after one more belt at 122 against WBC Emeritus super bantamweight champion Toshiaki Nishioka (39-4, 24 KO’s) and then move up to the featherweight division to campaign at 126 lbs.

Donaire said “Well, my goal is always to be an undisputed champion with three belts. No one has ever done it. When you have the majority you go one up. Know what I’m saying? When you have three out of the four [titles], that’s undisputed to me. We have a lot of guys like Nishioka, who is a great fighter; we have [Abner] Mares, Rigondeaux, maybe. We definitely have Nishioka. One more belt and I’m good to go to 126.”

There you have it. Donaire appears to be looking to take Nishioka next rather than Rigondeaux. While I think Nishioka was perhaps the best fighter in the super bantamweight division THREE YEARS AGO, I don’t see that now. He’s 35 now, and looked horrible in his last fight against a shot Rafael Marquez last November. I no longer see Nishioka as the best fighter. He’s gotten older recently, and with Rigondeaux now holding the WBA title and Abner Mares holding the WBC title, I see Nishioka as passe. I see Nishioka as well behind Rigondeaux, Mares and even Donaire. Nishioka would be lucky if he could beat Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. at this point. Things change when you get older, and Nishioka’s time is about up. I’m not surprised that Donaire is targeting him rather than Rigondeaux. That’s an easy mark for Donaire, and he can then move up to 126 while crowing that he’s the undisputed champion, all without having to fight Mares or Rigondeaux.

It was interesting to see Donaire jockeying back and forth with HBO analyst Max Kellerman after the fight when Donaire informed him while being interviewed that he’d be the undisputed super bantamweight champion if he captures one more belt. Kellerman pointed out that he considers an undisputed champion when you have all four belts, but Donaire immediately said that he himself considers an undisputed champion to be one that holds three of the four belts. You could see what Kellerman was driving at here. He likely wants to see Donaire step it up and face WBA World super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux, who has been really impressing on HBO lately with knockout victories over Rico Ramos and Teon Kennedy, but Donaire doesn’t seem like he’s going to take that fight.

It seems pretty clear who Donaire will go after at featherweight. That division is really weak at this point with a lot of the best fighters have departed to move up in weight to super featherweight. Donaire likely will stay far, far away from featherweight champion Orlando Salido. Instead of facing him and likely getting knocked cold, Donaire will look to go after the IBF champion Billy Dib, WBC champ Jhonny Gonzalez and WBA champ Chris John. Donaire will be able to beat at least those guys, and he’ll likely get those fights because he’s a popular fighter. But we won’t see Donaire face Salido, no way will that happen. We also won’t see him fight Juan Manuel Lopez. That won’t happen either. And we definitely won’t see Donaire fight Yuriorkis Gamboa. All three of those guys will knock him cold in my view.

It was disappointing to see Donaire struggling with Mathebula last Saturday night, because this is a fighter that Rigondeaux would likely KO in three rounds with body shots. Donaire couldn’t do anything with him and ended up winning what appeared to be a much closer decision than the one handed down by the judges.



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