By Chris Williams: IBF/WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (29-1, 18 KO’s) will be defending against a fighter that may be near the end of his career in former WBC super bantamweight champion Toshiki Nishioka (39-4-3, 24 KOs) next month on October 13th at the Home Depot Center, in Carson, California.

Nishioka is 36 now, and he’s coming off of a fight he barely won against a shot Rafael Marquez last October. Nishioka look to me to be a world class super bantamweight any longer in that fight, and seemed to have lost a half dozen steps from his prime six years previous.

Nishioka still has a 16-fight winning streak dating back eight years, but it’s kind of empty because none of those fighters were as good as the current top fighters in the super bantamweight division such as Guillermo Rigondeaux, Abner Mares, Donaire and Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. Nishioka was a good fighter during his prime but never in the class of those guys. He was just one of those fighters that took advantage of a weak era dor the super bantamweight division.

There’s probably little Nishioka can do to try and win the fight against Donaire. He just doesn’t match and he’s going to get dominated in this fight.

I this could be the last fight of Nishioka’s career if he gets beaten as bad I think he will. He’s stuck around a little too long and he’s facing the wrong opponent. It’s too bad Nishioka didn’t fight someone like Rigondeaux, Mares of Vazquez Jr. first because it would have been nice to have him filtered out before he got to Donaire.

Nishioka will have to try and score a knockout to win this fight, and the odds of him doing that are probably not good. He looked like he’d lost some of his reflexes in the Marquez fight last October and he’s going to be able to land much because of his lack of speed.