Nonito Donaire to fight on July 18th in Macau

By Boxing News - 04/13/2015 - Comments

donaire788884443By Chris Williams: 32-year-old former four division world champion Nonito Donaire (34-3, 22 KOs) will be back in the ring on July 18th against an opponent still to be determined in Macau, China. Donaire, #3 WBC, #5 WBO, had talked about wanting to fight a big name in his next fight after he wiped out a badly over-matched William Prado in 2 rounds on March 28th in a fight that took place in the Philippines.

It would be great news for a lot of boxing fans if Donaire were to take on a dangerous contender at super bantamweight instead of another 2nd tier fighter.

Donaire said he wants to step it up, and he’s not exactly a young guy who needs tune-up fights one after another. Tune-ups are for guys that are inactive, younger or fighters that were badly knocked out. Donaire wasn’t badly knocked out in his fight against Nicholas Walters.

Now Donaire will be back in Macau, a place where he defeated Simpiwe Vetyeka by a controversial 5th round technical decision in May of 2014 to capture Vetyeka’s title the easy way by only having to go five rounds instead of the distance or winning by a knockout. Donaire initially said that he would give Vetyeka a rematch because he wasn’t happy winning a world title in just five rounds by a technical decision, but there was no rematch given to Vetyeka.

Instead, Donaire fought Top Rank fighter Nicholas Walters, who knocked Donaire out in six rounds last October.

The fight in Macau in July will be the third in Donaire’s last fought fights where he’s fought outside of the United States. Donaire has spent a lot of time outside of the U.S ever since he was beaten soundly by Guillermo Rigondeaux in their fight in April 2013. It’s unclear why Donaire is fighting outside of the U.S more and more instead of him staying inside the country and meeting Rigondeaux in a rematch to show the boxing fans that the loss was just an aberration and not indicative of his true talent.

“I am training very hard and I’ll be ready even in May,” Donaire said via the New Standard/boxingmirror.com.

There’s no word yet who the opponent will be for Donaire, but for his sake he needs to be matched against better opposition because he doesn’t have a lot of time to waste fighting 2nd tier fighters. The 122 pound division is improving all the time with younger fighters moving up, and Donaire is an aging lion, and he can’t afford to lose his teeth and claws taking on lesser opponents instead of the big names. If Donaire doesn’t have the skills to beat the top fighters at super bantamweight any more then it would be good for him to find out sooner rather than later so that he can make a decision about what he wants to do with his career. Maybe he’ll be good with just being a contender. I’m not sure that will be the case, but at least he’ll know where he stands.



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