By Jim Dower: It appears that WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (26-1, 18 KO’s) will be sticking around for a little while longer at bantamweight rather than moving up to super featherweight to go after Wilfredo Vazquez Jr., the WBO super bantamweight champion. Donaire is reportedly looking at fighting IBF bantamweight champion Anselmo Moreno (30-1-1, 10 KO’s) next in May to July months.

Donaire, if successful in beating Moreno, he would hold three of the four bantamweight titles. Donaire plans on sticking around long enough to fight the winner of Showtime’s bantamweight tournament to try and capture the final bantamweight title. Currently, Joseph Agbeko is the IBF champ, but that likely will change by the time the bantamweight tournament is over.

Donaire recently defeated WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel in a 2nd round technical knockout. The victory put Donaire at number #3 in the Ring’s pound-for pound ranking and gave Donaire a huge surge in popularity.

However, because of the lack of stars at bantamweight, because of the fact that boxing fans aren’t particularly interested in the smaller fighters from the bantamweight division, Donaire is going to have to keep moving up in weight if he wants to capture the popularity of fellow Filipino Manny Pacquiao.

Fighting the likes of Moreno and fighters in the bantamweight tournament won’t get the job done in making Donaire a super star. He needs to get to the featherweight division, knock off Juan Manuel Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa and then move up to lightweight, light welterweight and welterweight if he wants to become a huge star. It’s unlikely that Donaire will be able to move beyond the featherweight division before he meets up with fighters that can either take his power or neutralize his left hand and test his chin.