By Chris Williams: Nonito Donaire (31-2, 20 KO’s) is reportedly down to 131 lbs. already with just 2 weeks to go before his rematch against soon to be 38-year-old Vic Darchinyan (39-5-1, 28 KO’s) on HBO on November 9th at the American Bank Center, in Corpus Christi, Texas, USA, according to Philboxing.com. The bout will be taking place at featherweight (126), and Donaire should easily make that weight.
Darchinyan, who is more of super flyweight, will obviously make the weight as well. Darchinyan has been fighting at bantamweight and super bantamweight for the past three years, but with mixed results. He’s not been successful at either of those weights and has lost a lot of fights since he left the super flyweight division.
Donaire lost his last fight to WBA super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux last April in a one-sided fight. Donaire feels that it’s too hard for him to make the 122 lb. weight limit for the super bantamweight division, which is why he’s moved up to featherweight. What’s not understood is why Donaire is fighting Darchinyan, a super bantamweight, rather than someone from the featherweight division. Usually when a fighter moves up in weight to higher division, they fight the guys in that division. They don’t keep fighting guys from the division that they just left, expecting them to move up in weight. When they do that it just means that they’re still basically in the lighter division but aren’t required to make the weight for that division.
If Donaire is going to be still fighting super bantamweights while fighting in the featherweight division, whey isn’t he fighting Rigondeaux again? That’s the guy that just beat him badly. It would seem like the more logical fight rather than facing Darchinyan again. Donaire already beat Darchinyan 6 years ago in a 5th round stoppage. No fans are crying for a Donaire-Darchinyan fight. In fact, a lot of fans think Darchinhyan should retire from boxing because he’s lost 2 out of his last 4 fights, and he he was staggered in his last fight by little known journeyman Javier Gallo last May.
Darchinyan has little more than a punchers chance of winning this fight. He’s going to have to rush Donaire like he did last time they fought and hope that he doesn’t run into another left hook like the one that knocked him out. If Darchinyan tries to boxing Donaire then he’s going to get picked apart and knocked out. If he stands in front of him for 12 rounds, he’ll get knocked out. Darchinyan has go go after Donaire and hope that he can beat him up like Rigondeaux did. It’s possible that Donaire isn’t mentally back from his loss to Rigondeaux, so Darchinyan might be able to take advantage of him having lost his confidence.
If Donaire wins this fight then we’re likely going to see his Top Rank promoter Bob Arum targeting WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido for a fight for Donaire. I think Salido would knock Donaire out and give him a beating. But that’s about all you can do with Donaire is put him in with Salido unless Arum wants to match him against WBC featherweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez or IBF champion Evgeny Gradovich. I think both of them will stop Donaire as well. They’re too powerful and rugged for him.
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