Will Arum let Donaire fight Lomachenko next?

By Boxing News - 06/22/2014 - Comments

lomachenko99By Chris Williams: Now that Vasyl Lomachenko (2-1, 1 KO’s) has captured the vacant WBA featherweight title after beating #1 WBO Gary Russell Jr last night by virtue of his 12 round majority decision, the question now on the minds of many boxing fans is will Bob Arum of Top Rank let WBA Super World featherweight champion Nonito Donaire (33-2, 21 KO’s) fight Lomachenko in a unification bout in November or December of this year or will Arum steer the better known Donaire around the Ukrainian fighter to safer waters where Donaire can have a better chance of keeping his WBA title?

We’re already hearing that Donaire might not be giving a rematch against Simpiwe Vetyeka despite the fact that he said he would after their fight from last month ended after just 5 rounds due to Donaire suffering a cut over his eye. For a challenger to win a title off of a cut that he himself suffered is kind of an off-putting way of winning a belt, especially if the challenger doesn’t give the champion a rematch. That right there is going to look bad if Donaire fails to give Vetyeka a rematch.

If Donaire isn’t going to give Vetyeka a rematch, which seems to be the case, then Donaire should look to face Lomachenko next because he already said the he wanted to unify the titles before moving up in weight. There’s talk that Arum might match Donaire up against WBA regular featherweight champion Nicholas Walters next, but that fight doesn’t make any sense at all.

It would be like Donaire adding another paper title to his collection because few boxing fans in the U.S have heard of Walters, and he’s not the one that fans are talking about right now. The only guy that really means anything at featherweight right now is Lomachenko, and if Donaire isn’t going to be matched up against him by Arum then you have to ask why not?

Why would Arum put Donaire in a lesser fight against Nicholas Walters rather than putting Donaire in with Lomachenko? I’m just saying. It seems like the logical choice is to match Donaire up with Lomachenko next unless there’s some worry there by Arum. We already saw Donaire get beaten by Guillermo Rigondeaux last year, and that had to hurt big time. Arum didn’t match Donaire back up with Rigondeaux to try and avenge the defeat. Instead we saw Donaire fight 39-year-old Vic Darchinyan and then Vetyeka, a fighter that some boxing fans saw as the weak link among the featherweight champions.



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