By Chris Williams: The 32-year-old former four division world champion Nonito Donaire (33-3, 21 KOs) will be looking to reinvent his career on Saturday night against William Prado (22-4-1, 15 KOs) in a fight at super bantamweight at the Araneta Coliseum, Barangay Cubao, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines.
Donaire tried to make something happen in moving up to featherweight, but soon found out the hard way that he wasn’t cut out for that weight. Donaire struggled against Vic Darchinyan, and was knocked out in the 6th round by WBA featherweight champion Nicholas Walters.
“I have never gone down in my life,” Donaire said via Philboxing.com. “I lost it for the past couple of years. The fans will find out on Saturday.”
I don’t know that Donaire “lost it” as he says in the last couple of year. I think it was more of a case of Donaire finally facing guys that were better than him in Nicholas Walters and Guillermo Rigondeaux. Donaire’s promoter Bob Arum was matching him up against a lot of beatable guys over a period of years.
Donaire was feasting on guys that would absolutely be torn apart by the top super bantamweights in the division now. This is why Donaire struggled when he got in the ring with Rigondeaux. It wasn’t a case of Donaire having lost it; it was more of a case of Donaire finally fighting the best.
If Donaire is serious about wanting to give it another go at 122, then he’s going to need to test himself against guys like Scott Quigg, Carl Frampton and/or Rigondeaux. Fighting Leo Santa Cruz is out of the question for Donaire because he’s with adviser Al Haymon, and I don’t see him wanting to do business with Arum in order to make the fight against Donaire.
I honestly feel that the boat has already sailed for Donaire as far him being able to win any more titles at super bantamweight. He had his time as the WBO belt holder at super bantamweight during arguably a weak period of the 122 pound division. But now he’s older and the division has gotten better. I don’t see him being able to win any more belts unless Santa Cruz vacates his WBC title so that Donaire can slide in and pick up a title the easy way without him having to risk his hide against the good super bantamweight champions.
The Prado fight isn’t going to reinvent Donaire. I think it’s more of a situation where Donaire will be taking his career backwards to an era where he wasn’t facing really dangerous guys. If Donaire keeps fighting guys like Prado, I see him doing well. But if he faces someone good like one of the above mentioned fighters, I think he’s going to get beaten again.
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