By Chris Williams: Nonito Donaire (33-3, 21 KOs) will be attempting to resurrect his career next month when he faces an opponent yet to be determined on March 28th at the Mall of Asia Arena in the Philippines. Donaire’s opponent is expected to be a Mexican fighter in the 122 pound division.
Donaire, 32, will be moving down in weight from the featherweight division after having been knocked out in his last bout by WBA featherweight title holder Nicholas Walters in the 6th round last October.
Rather than stick it out at that weight, Donaire is opting to move back down to super bantamweight where he at one time was considered the best fighter in the division.
“He [Donaire] is super motivated right now,” said Donaire’s father Nonito Sr to gmanetwork.com. “I’m out of words with all his hard work.”
Donaire did a lot of hard work in training for his fights against Walters and Vic Darchinyan in his last two bouts, but he didn’t look anything like the same guy who was named Fighter of the Year in 2012 by Sports writers. The movement in Donaire’s legs is now largely gone, and he just looks slower with a slowed reaction time to incoming fire.
Without his ability to move around the ring like he once did, Donaire is like a butterfly without wings. He’s at the mercy of his opposition now, because he has to depend more on his power and his chin to get victories. Donaire’s power is still formidable, and that gives him a chance against the smaller super bantamweights. But Donaire is still going to have major problems against the best fighters at 122 like Guillermo Rigondeaux, Scott Quigg, Leo Santa Cruz, Carl Frampton, Kiko Martinez, Chris Avalos and Jessie Magdaleno.
It wouldn’t be all that surprising if Donaire were to lose to at least four of those fighters. The division has gotten a lot better since Donaire was considered the #1 guy in 2012, and I don’t know if there’s a place for him now. Unless his promoters at Top Rank are very careful in who they match Donaire against, I see him taking loss after loss at 122.
Age is starting to kick in with Donaire, and he may have to settle for just being a contender at this point in his career. If you put him in with a champion right now, it might be bad for Donaire. He looked terrible in his last four fights, and you can’t just say it was because he was fighting at featherweight. Rigondeaux soundly beat Donaire in their fight in 2013, and Donaire then struggled against Darchinyan and Simpiwe Vetyeka before losing to Walters. All three of those fights easily could have defeats for Donaire.
Donaire could just fight at 122 and look for good match-ups rather than him going after any of the major titles. If Top Rank mainly puts Donaire in money fights against guys pulled up from the bantamweight division, I can see Donaire doing well and making some good cash. But if he’s put in with any of the champions at 122, I see it going badly for Donaire.
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