By Dave Lahr: Former International Boxing Federation (IBF) flyweight champion and WBA super flyweight interim champion Nonito Donaire (24-1, 16 KO’s) will be stepping it up against WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel (43-2-2, 33 KO’s) in November.

The venue for the fight still hasn’t been decided, but it’s expected to take place in the United States. According to Philboxing, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has confirmed that Donaire will be fighting Montiel next.

Donaire, 27, whose biggest win of his nine-year pro career came three long years ago in a 5th round stoppage of Vic Darchinyan, hasn’t done much since then. Donaire has beaten Luis Maldonado, Moruti Mthalane, Raul Martinez, Rafael Concepcion, Manuel Vargas and Hernan Marquez. However, none of those have been the huge fights that Donaire has been looking for.

Additionally, Donaire is looking less and less impressive with each fight, and appears to be regressing rather than getting better with age. Two fights ago, he struggled badly in beating Rafael Concepcion in a 12 round decision.

The excuse then was that Concepcion weighed in four pounds over the 115 pound super flyweight limit, but so what? Four is nothing, and it was no excuse for how much punishment and how bad Donaire looked in that fight. He took a real pounded from Concepcion and had to run from him in the second half of the fight to get the win.

In Contrast, Montiel made easy work of Concepcion this past weekend, knocking him down three times en route to stopping him in the 3rd round. For a fighter that is compared to Manny Pacquiao a lot by his fellow countryman, Donaire isn’t looking impressive, nothing like Pacquiao.

I give Donaire little chance of beating Montiel in November, and I just hope he doesn’t come up with a bunch of excuse if he loses.