By Dan Ambrose: Two division world champion Nonito Donaire (27-1, 18 KO’s) moves up in weight to try and pick up the vacant WBO super bantamweight title against Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. (21-1-1, 18 KO’s) on February 4th at the Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas. Donaire, 5’7”, has done well against shorter opposition in the flyweight, super flyweight and the bantamweight divisions.
Against shorter guys, Donaire is lethal. On February 4th, Donaire will be sporting a two inch height advantage and a considerable power advantage as well. He’s also got the extra advantage in this fight that Vazquez Jr. was stopped in the 12th round by Jorge Arce last May. Bob Arum, Donaire’s promoter, is obviously putting him in the best possible situation for him to win an easy title, as long as Vazquez Jr. caves in like a lot of people thing he will.
Donaire would likely win this fight regardless of whether or not Vazquez was coming off of a loss, but it certainly helps that he just took a bad beating by Jorge Arce and was stopped. Vazquez Jr. won his last fight against journeyman Roberto Carlos Leyva last October, but that win proved nothing because it was a soft opponent for Vazquez.
Arum wants to move Donaire around like a chess piece to pick off the weaker belt holders, win titles and then look to put him in money fights.
Unfortunately there isn’t any big money fights at super bantamweight and it will require for Donaire to move up once again this time to featherweight if he wants to get a big money fight against the likes of Juan Manuel Lopez or Yuriorkis Gamboa if Arum were willing to match Donaire up with those fighters.
The way for Vazquez to beat Donaire is by pressuring him the way that Omar Narvarez and Rafael Concepcion did. However, he’s going to have to have a good chin and good defensive if he’s to get away with it. Concepcion bull rushed Donaire with great effectiveness and punished him with hard shots. This put Donaire on the run, and once he was moving a lot, he didn’t have nearly as much power on his shots as when he was coming forward looking to punch.
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