By Chris Williams: You could sort of understand why HBO would want to televise IBF/WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire’s fights when he was competing in the flyweight and super flyweight divisions, because due to his size and power, he was destroying most of the much smaller fighters he was facing in those divisions.

At 5’6″, Donaire was huge for those divisions, and was like a mini Klitschko. But now that he’s moved up to super bantamweight, Donaire finds himself no longer the top guy in the division, and his performances are no longer spectacular because he’s no longer dwarfing his opponents. They’re either the same height as him or bigger. There are two fighters in the division that stand out head and shoulders above the rest and those two guys are Abner Mares and Guillermo Rigondeaux. Thus far, Donaire hasn’t been interested in facing them, and instead has fought Wilfredo Vazquez Jr and Jeffrey Mathebula, and not looked good in either fight. While Donaire is not looking good, Mares and Rigondeaux are really impressing. With each fight they’re showing that these guys are the real talents in the division, but still Donaire doesn’t fight them.

Since HBO likes to focus on putting on fan friendly fights and not throw mismatches to the boxing public like what we’ve been seeing lately with some of Donaire’s fights, I’m wondering if/when HBO will start applying pressure to Donaire to take on Mares or Rigondeaux instead of guys like Toshiaki Nishioka and Jorge Arce, two fighters that Donaire has mentioned wanting to fight back to back in 2012.

I think HBO needs to say no to the Donaire-Arce and Donaire-Nishioka fights, and tell him that they’ll televise fights between him and Mares or Rigondeaux, but no more mismatch fights for now. HBO only rarely televises the Klitschko brothers on their network after having too many dull fights where they were put in with guys not in their league. HBO needs to stop televising Donaire’s fights until he faces someone worthy to see him fight against. I think HBO needs to put their foot down and say no to Donaire’s fights against Arce and Nishioka. If Donaire wants to fight them, then fine he can do it without HBO, but if he wants to be seen on the network he needs to step it up a level by facing Rigondeaux and Mares. I think I know what would happen if HBO gave Donaire an ultimatum like that. Donaire would still likely face Arce and then Nishioka but on a different network. I don’t see Donaire agreeing to fight Rigondeaux and Mares no matter how hard HBO tries to get him to take those fights.