Nonito Donaire to fight on HBO on November 9th in doubleheader

By Boxing News - 08/09/2013 - Comments

donaire147By Chris Williams: Former two division world champion Nonito Donaire (31-2, 20 KO’s) will be back in the ring on November 9th against an opponent still to be determined on HBO as part of a double-header, according to Steve Kim.

Former WBO featherweight champion Mikey Garcia will be fighting on the card against WBO super featherweight champion Roman “Rocky” Martinez. There’s no word about which fight will be the main event.

It’s hard to picture Donaire fighting in the main event with the way that he was easily beaten by WBA super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux last April.

Rigondeaux won’t be on the card despite having beaten Donaire badly. If Top Rank is going to have Rigondeaux on any of their fight cards on HBO, it might need to be in pay per view cards unless HBO starts showing interest in having him fight on their cards.

You can bet that Donaire’s opponent will be a smaller fighter that comes to slug with him rather than a fighter with defensive skills. HBO had a good thing going with Donaire with him bringing in good ratings blasting out a lot of smaller fighters in the bantamweight and super bantamweight divisions.

Things were going well for HBO until Rigondeaux went and spoiled things by whipping Donaire badly, and making him look an average fighter. Now HBO might not get the great ratings for Donaire’s fights until Top Rank and can build him back up by putting him in with guys that are made to order for him.

Eventually, the boxing public will forget about how Donaire was dominated by Rigondeaux, and he’ll once again bring in big ratings on HBO.

As for Rigondeaux, he’ll likely have to be satisfied with his fights tucked away on PPV undercards by Top Rank. It’ll work out if he can get a spot as a co-feature, but if his fights are below that then it’s not going to be nearly the deal that he would have had if was headlining his bouts on HBO.



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