Nonito Donaire vs. Hugo Ruiz a possibility

By Boxing News - 05/15/2015 - Comments

donaireBy Chris Williams: Former four division world champion Nonito Donaire (34-3, 22 KOs) is reportedly in talks with #1 WBC Hugo Ruiz (35-2, 31 KOs) for a WBC super bantamweight title eliminator, according to Fight News. The winner of the Donaire-Ruiz fight could either be the WBC mandatory or could become the WBC 122lb champion if the current WBC champion Leo Santa Cruz moves up in weight to featherweight like he’s been talking about wanting to do.

If Santa Cruz moves up to 126, his WBC super bantamweight title would become vacant for Donaire and Ruiz to fight over. Donaire is ranked #3 WBC.

Donaire is in a good position to beat Ruiz, and hold onto the WBC title for a while, as the WBC doesn’t have anyone that you can call a threat to Donaire ranked in their top 15 at 122. That includes Ruiz too. Donaire should be able to win this fight fairly comfortably. The guys that could give Donaire some problems at 122 or fighters like Guillermo Rigondeaux, who already beat him, Scott Quigg, Carl Frampton and Kiko Martinez.

Donaire recently moved up to featherweight after complaining that he’d been having problems making weight at super bantamweight. However, after pulling 39-year-old Darchinyin up in weight for a fight at featherweight and subsequently beating him, Donaire was defeated by WBA 126 pound champion Nicholas Walters by a 6th round knockout last October.

Rather than staying at featherweight to see if things would get better in the future, Donaire immediately moved back down to super featherweight and defeated little known 2nd tier fighter named Willie Prado by a 2nd round knockout last March in a showcase fight. Donaire, who is promoted by Top Rank, will now be fighting Hugo Ruiz next in what could be a fight for the vacant WBC 122 pound title.

For Donaire, this is an ideal situation because it’s the easiest option by far for him to win a world title at 122. Ruiz, 28, is a decent fighter but he’s far from great. He was beaten by Koki Kameda by a 12 round split decision in 2012. Since that fight, Ruiz has won his last four fights in beating Giovanni Caro, Julio Cesar Miranda, Ramon Maas, and Carlos Medellin. Ruiz has beaten some decent fighters during his career, but never the top guys. He’s only faced one really good fighter in Kameda and he lost to him. The other guys he’s faced him been less than stellar opponents.

Donaire was voted Fighter of the Year in 2012 for wins over Wilfredo Vazquez Jr, Jorge Arce, Jeffrey Mathebula and Toshiaki Nishioka. Donaire’s opposition was a mediocre bunch of fighters that you would normally not consider good enough fighters to lead to someone getting an award for beating them, but the boxing writers association was impressed by Donaire’s accomplishment nonetheless and give him the award.

Nishioka and Arce were both seen as over-the-hill by a lot of boxing fans at the time. Mathebula was a light hitting fighter who’d never problem anything. Vazquez Jr. was a guy that had been recently beaten by Arce, which in itself told you all you needed to know about Vazquez. When Donaire finally did face someone that you can call a good fighter in Rigondeaux, he was promptly beaten.



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