By Chris Williams: Nonito Donaire (27-1, 18 KO’s) faces a guy that was recently knocked in his last fight in Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. (21-1-1, 18 KO’s), who Donaire have been matched up against by his promoter Bob Arum in a fight on February 4th for the vacant WBO super bantamweight title at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

This is what you call good matchmaking. In good means soft matchmaking because Vazquez Jr. was already soundly beaten By Jorge Arce and knocked out in the 12th round last May, and now Donaire is facing this guy.

The fighter you’ll notice that Donaire isn’t facing at super bantamweight is interim World super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (8-0, 6 KO’s), a two-time Olympic gold medalist for Cuba and arguably the best fighter in the super bantamweight division right now.

Instead of facing this guy, Donaire gets matched up against someone that was just knocked out. It’s pretty nice that Vazquez Jr. gets to fight for the vacant title despite having been recently knocked out. This is perfect matchmaking by Donaire’s promoter. Put in soft and Donaire looks like a world beater.

Donaire said this on his facebook page: “I don’t avoid anyone and no one around me is avoiding Guillermo. He just needs to talk to TR [Top Rank] and get it done. I’ll fight whoever is in that ring. I have respect for all boxers, even if he wants to belittle me.”

That sounds a lot like the same excuses that WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Manny Pacquiao make when people question them on why they’re not fighting such and such fighters. It’s up to the Arum, I guess.

It almost sounds like Donaire is powerless to speak up for himself to make a fight happen. Is it really up to Top Rank or is that just a convenient excuse Donaire is making to give himself cover for not taking a dangerous fight he might not win.
In Donaire’s last fight, he fought a guy a division below him in the tiny 5’3” Omar Narvaez and Donaire looked terrible in trying to find holes in his defense to land his punches.

Narvarez figured out early all he had to do to shut down Donaire’s offense was to hold his guard high and he could easily block Donaire’s left hook, which is clearly his best weapon. Without his left hook being able to connect, Donaire was a very average fighter and looked clueless for most of the night. To be sure, Donaire got the win but mostly on size alone. He had four inch height advantage over Narvaez.