By Chris Williams: Nonito Donaire (24-1, 16 KO’s) will be moving up in weight to take on Wladimir Sidorenko (22-2, 7 KO’s) for the World Boxing Association (WBA) interim bantamweight title on Saturday night in the main event of the In Harms Way fight card at the Honda Center, in Anaheim, California.

Donaire’s fight with Sidorenko was supposed to be on the undercard but Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. suddenly became ill this week, which removed him from the card. Chavez Jr. was supposed to fight the tough Pawel Wolak. It may be a good thing that Chavez got sick. As for the Donaire-Sidorenko fight, it’s going to be interesting to see if fans tune into watch this fight because the bout goes for $44 on pay-per-view and Donaire really hasn’t established himself as a PPV star at this point in his career.

At 28, Donaire needs to be in better fights than guys like Sidorenko if he wants to be considered a big attraction. Since beating Vic Darchinyan three years ago in a 6th round stoppage, Donaire’s career has slowed as he’s failed to pick up any big wins against popular fighters. He has beaten a number of decent fighters like Luis Maldonado, Raul Martinez, Rafael Concepcion, Manuel Vargas and Hernan Marquez, but he’s not fought anyone that boxing fans really took notice of.

In the Concepcion fight, Donaire looked far from impressive, as he was pretty much out-slugged by Concepcion and roughed up in that fight. Donaire won the bout, but he had to dance around on the outside to win a decision. The inflated scores didn’t match the actual fight, because it appeared that Donaire barely the bout. That’s not a good sign for Donaire because he plans on Fernando Montiel, the WBC/WBO bantamweight champion on February 19th 2011. Montiel easily destroyed Concepcion in a 3rd round stoppage in July of this year. Based on how the two fighters matched up against a common opponent, it would seem that Donaire is going to take a beating from Montiel next year. That’s how I see it.

As for Saturday’s fight, Donaire should win this one. His Top Rank handlers have picked a perfect opponent for him to keep winning. Sidorenko has lost two out of his last three fights and looked horrible both times. Donaire should win this one. A better fight would have been a rematch between Donaire and Concepcion. It would have given Donaire an opportunity to see if he could improve on his poor performance against Concepcion.

Last time he made excuses that Concepcion was heavier than him. With both of them now at the same weight, it would be interesting to see what Donaire would say if he gets roughed up again. For a fighter that many people see as the next Manny Pacquiao, I think he’s really lagging and not showing that he’s got the ability to move from division to division the same way. Donaire did very little in his stay at super flyweight and I would have liked to have seen him take on someone like Omar Narvaes, Hugo Cazares or even Alberto Rosas instead of just Concepcion. I think that fight kind of proved that Donaire would have had huge problems had he fought those guys, because if he’s struggling against Concepcion, he would have been likely out of his class against the better fighters.