Donaire will never be a star until he moves up to the featherweight division – and maybe not even then

By Boxing News - 10/22/2011 - Comments

Image: Donaire will never be a star until he moves up to the featherweight division - and maybe not even thenBy Chris Williams: If I was Bob Arum I’d start with the tough love for WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire already. Despite the money that Arum has put into trying to make Donaire a PPV star, Donaire still remains pretty much an unknown fighter in the eyes of many casual boxing fans.

For example, I spoke to a number of people that follow boxing fans on a casual basis about Donaire’s fight against super flyweight Omar Narvaez this weekend and I couldn’t find one fan who knew who Donaire was. Not one. They all know Floyd Mayweather Jr., Manny Pacquiao, Oscar De La Hoya, the Klitschko brothers, but they don’t know who Donaire is.

I think the problem here is Donaire is fighting in the wrong weight class and he needs to be moved along in a big hurry. Arum needs to get Donaire in motion or cut his losses. There’s not going to be any money or interest in a Donaire fight until he at least gets up to the featherweight and super featherweight divisions.

Those are the divisions with the stars right now and at 5’7″, there’s no excuses for Donaire not to be already fighting at that weight. If Arum wants to take his time and waste another year of Donaire’s career bringing him along with training wheels on then so be it. I guess Arum is rich enough to waste time and money, but I think it’s not a good business move. Arum needs to have Donaire skip the super bantamweight division and go straight to the featherweight division to immediately take on Juan Manuel Lopez after this fight.

As for tonight’s fight between Donaire and Narvaez, I’m not even going to waste time talking about this mismatch. Donaire will be spoon-fed an aging 36-year-old fighter from a division below him in Narvaez and of course Donaire will win.

The biggest problem for Donaire is he probably can’t compete with Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa. That may be the real reason why Arum isn’t moving Donaire up in weight. He might see Donaire as a tall bird-like fighter who will break when matched against sluggers like Gamboa and Lopez. If Rafael Concepcion was able to stagger Donaire what do you think Gamboa and Lopez will do?



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