By Allan Fox: Former four division world champion Nonito Donaire (34-3, 22 KOs) opted not to take part in the World Boxing Council’s purse bid for a 122lb WBC eliminator bout against #1 WBC Hugo Ruiz, according to Philboxing. The 32-year-old Donaire instead is taking a tune-up fight against Anthony Settoul (20-3, 8 KOs) on July 18th at the Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort, Macao, Macao S.A.R., China.
After that fight, Donaire wants to face unbeaten WBA super bantamweight champion Scott Quigg. For that to happen, Quigg will need to win his fight on July 18th against former IBF 122lb champion Kiko Martinez.
Quigg will be taking two tough fights in a row if he faces Martinez followed by Donaire. It would make it a tough year for Quigg to have those two fights back to back.
Donaire should be able to beat France’s 28-year-old Settoul without too many problems because this guy isn’t considered a top fighter. He’s just another body for Donaire to beat similar to Donaire’s last fight against William Prado last March. Donaire stopped Prado in the 2nd round of a noncompetitive fight.
Donaire isn’t the same fighter that he once was many years ago, but he’s still good enough to stop 2nd tier fighters like Prado, and likely good enough to destroy Settoul as well.
It’s now been seven months since Donaire was stopped in the 6th round by WBA featherweight champion Nicholas Walters in October of 2014. Donaire had Walters hurt briefly in that fight, but Walters came back to drop Donaire to the canvas with a sledgehammer shot that left Donaire face down. Donaire decided that he was better off moving back down to 122 [super bantamweight] after that fight rather than continue to face big punchers.
At super bantamweight, Donaire only needs to worry about guys like Guillermo Rigondeaux, who already beat him in 2013, Scott Quigg and Carl Frampton. At featherweight, there are a lot of guys that could potentially give Donaire a lot of problems. But even at super bantamweight, Donaire may not be good enough to dominate like he was before when he held the WBO title and was beating guys like Toshiaki Nishioka, Jorge Arce, Wilfredo Vazquez Jr., and Jeffrey Mathebula.
The fighters are better at 122 now than they were when Donaire was given the 2012 ‘Fighter of the Year’ award for beating the aforementioned fighters. Beating those guys now would give Donaire nothing because they’re no longer relevant.
For Donaire to get the ‘Fighter of the Year’ award now in 2015, he’d have to beat Quigg, Frampton and Rigondeaux. That’s probably not going to happen, not with Donaire older and more stationary.
Comments are closed.