By Chris Williams: Former HBO commentator Larry Merchant sees former three weight world champion Nonito Donaire (32-2, 21 KO’s) getting some big fights in the near future if he gets passed WBA Super World featherweight champion Simpiwe Vetyeka (26-2, 16 KO’s) in their fight this Saturday at the Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort, Macao, Macao S.A.R., China.
Merchant believes that how Donaire, 31, performs against Vetyeka will determine if Donaire will be able to keep moving up in weight in the future. Donaire will need to be able to move up in weight if he wants to get the big fights, because boxing fans probably aren’t going to get too excited with Donaire being matched up against the likes of Jhonny Gonzalez, Evgeny Gradovich, Nicholas Walters, Vasyl Lomachenko, Gary Russell Jr. and Vic Darchinyan [again].
For Donaire to get the bigger fights, he’s going to need to move up to super featherweight to take on Mikey Garcia, lightweight to fight Terence Crawford, and finally light welterweight to face Manny Pacquiao, Danny Garcia or Ruslan Provodnikov.
“If he wins this fight, he could be in some big, important events over the next couple of years,” Merchant said. “Will his punch be as strong? And will he be able to withstand the punches he gets? That’s what we have to see on Saturday night.”
I really can’t see Donaire being competitive beyond the super featherweight division, and that’s only because there’s a couple of weak champions in that weight class. Mikey Garcia would likely destroy Donaire, as would Takashi Uchiyama. But Donaire is going to start moving up almost immediately if he’s to get up to light welterweight to get a big money fight against Pacquiao.
Donaire needs to skip the super featherweight and lightweight division altogether and just move up to 140 and ask Bob Arum for the Pacquiao fight. Arum can probably sell the fight if he puts Donaire in with a badly faded light welterweight first so that the casual boxing fans with scant knowledge of the sport think Donaire is for real. Arum could then make the Donaire-Pacquiao fight, and we’d get a likely massacre on epic proportions.
Weights for Donaire-Vetyeka
Simpiwe Vetyeka 125.5 vs. Nonito Donaire 126
Nicholas Walters 125.5 vs. Vic Darchinyan 125.8
Evgeny Gradovich 125.5 vs. Alexander Miskirtchian 125.5
Chris Avalos 121.5 vs. Yasutaka Ishimoto 121.8
Ik Yang 137.5 vs. Geisler Ap 138.5
Rex Tso 116.5 vs. Ratchasak Kokietgym 115
Esquiva Falcao 161.5 vs. Eun-Chang Lee 162
Ng Kuok Kun 152 vs. Muhammad Imam 147
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