By Chris Williams: If Nonito Donaire (31-2, 20 KO’s) can get past his right with 37-year-old Vic Darchinyan (39-5-1, 28 KO’s) on November 9th, Donaire reportedly wants to fight the winner of the October 12th fight between Orlando Salido (39-12-2, 27 KO’s) and Orlando Cruz (20-2-1, 10 KO’s) for the WBO featherweight title, according to Philboxing.com.
Salido and Cruz will be battling for the vacant WBO 126 lb. title. By Donaire going after the winner of that fight, he’ll be taking the path of least resistance in trying to win one of the featherweight titles.
Donaire certainly isn’t going to face WBC featherweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez, because he’s a murderous puncher, and Donaire isn’t ready for that kind of puncher in the featherweight division.
Donaire also would have a lot of problems against IBF featherweight champion Evgeny Gradovich either, because he’s powerful, he’s got a great chin, and he puts a lot of pressure on his opponents with his inside fighting skills.
Donaire would stack up well against WBA champion Chris John, but he might grow old waiting for John to ever give him a chance at his belt. The odds of John giving Donaire a fight is pretty much zero unless Donaire became the mandatory challenger for John.
Donaire should be fighting a featherweight for his next fight instead of Darchinyan. That’s a fight that won’t get Donaire prepared for fighting at featherweight.
If all Donaire wants to do is beat the winner of the Salido-Cruz fight, then he might be okay because Salido looked bad in his last fight against Mikey Garcia. But if Donaire intends on keeping the WBO title and defending it against all contenders, then he’s going to have problems when he has to face Gary Russell Jr., who is currently ranked #2 by the WBO.
I see Donaire vacating the WBO title if he’s able to beat the winner of the Cruz-Salido fight to win the strap, because Russell Jr. is too fast for Donaire, and he’ll end up beating Donaire the same way Guillermo Rigondeaux did.
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