By Chris Williams: Former four division world champion Nonito Donaire (33-3, 21 KOs) will be moving back down to the super bantamweight division (122 pounds), says his trainer/father Nonito Donaire Sr. This was something that Donaire hinted at following his 6th round knockout loss to WBA World featherweight champion Nicholas Walters (25-0, 21 KOs) last Saturday night at the SubHub Center in Carson, California.
Donaire was planted onto the canvas by a big right hand shot by Walters. After crawling back to his feet, Donaire wasn’t allowed to continue fighting due to the sad shape he was in. Donaire would have been destroyed immediately if the referee Jack Reiss had allowed the fight to continue.
Donaire Sr says Nonito won’t be facing Walters again. There were some boxing fans who felt that Donaire could avenge the loss to Walters if he gets in good shape, and fights smarter the second time around, but Donaire Sr has ruled that out.
It looks like Donaire will elect to move on without trying to avenge his loss to Walters just as Donaire moved on after losing to Guillermo Rigondeaux last year in April.
“Nonito said earlier that he really wanted to rest and return to his natural weight class which is the super bantamweight or the junior featherweight,” Donaire Sr told the Manilatimes.net. “There is no rematch plan so far since the featherweight class is bigger for him.”
Fighting at super bantamweight may be a problem for Donaire as well, because there’s no longer any soft opponents for him to beat in order to pick up an easy world title like when Donaire won his titles in that weight class against Wilfredo Vazquez Jr and Jeffrey Mathebula.
If Donaire wants to win a world title at super bantamweight, he’ll need to try and beat Rigondeaux, Leo Santa Cruz, Scott Quigg or Carl Frampton. I think they’re all too good for Donaire at this point in his career.
Donaire Sr needs to try and convince Donaire that he needs to move down to bantamweight if he wants to win another world title, because there’s no longer any weak options for him at 122.
If Donaire is just looking to get a big fight then he should look to fight Rigondeaux again or possibly Frampton. Santa Cruz is probably not an option for Donaire because he’s with Al Haymon.
“Our strategy was not to engage with Walters but when Nonito hurt him in the second round, Nonito tried to knockout the Jamaican,” Nonito Sr. said. “That was a big mistake though. When our opponent connected some punches, Nonito got hurt.”
Donaire was moving a lot in the 4th round, but in the 5th and 6th round, he was trying to punch with Walters. It wasn’t just the 2nd and 3rd round where Donaire chose to slug with Walters. He did it in the 5th and 6th and it cost him the fight.
Donaire would have likely lost the fight even if he didn’t engage, because Walters was picking him off with jabs all night long while on the outside. Donaire couldn’t do anything on the outside, and he was forced to engage with Walters in order to try and score a knockout. It was pretty much Donaire’s only option to try and win the fight. He would have been jabbed to pieces if he stayed on the outside like his father wanted him to.
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