By Chris Williams: WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (28-1, 18 KO’s) could be making his first defense of his newly won World Boxing Organization title on July 14th against former IBF/WBA/WBC super flyweight champion Cristian Mijares (44-6-2, 20 KO’s) on the undercard of Juan Manuel Marquez (53-6-1, 39 KO’s) vs. light welterweight contender Mercito Gesta (24-0, 12 KO’s), according to Steve Kim. The fight could take place in San Antonio, Texas.

Kim said “It looks like Nonito Donaire could be facing Cristian Mijares on July 14th, according to Bob Arum, underneath JMM [Juan Manuel Marquez]- Mercito Gesta.”

Donaire, 29, has been mentioned as possibly defending against the tough Victor Terrazaz. However, it may be that #2 WBC Terrazaz was considered too much of a threat to beating Donaire because he’s a solid super bantamweight with excellent power. Mijares, 30, is an odd but safe pick for Donaire because he’s not a huge puncher like Terrazaz and isn’t even ranked in the top 15 by any of the sanctioning bodies. Mijares has a fight coming up on April 14th against Cruz Carbajal and would have to get through that fight in order to get to a fight against Donaire.

I think this is a pretty sad fight because Donaire has said he only wants to fight the big names and doesn’t feel that Guillermo Rigondeaux is a big enough name for him. Well, Mijares isn’t anywhere close to being as good as Rigondeaux. Indeed, Mijares was completely blown out by Donaire victim Vic Darchinyan in November 2008, and then followed that loss by getting beaten twice in succession by Nehomar Cemeno in 2009. Mijares has won his last eight fights but none of them were big names.

The Marquez vs. Gesta fight is a real curiosity. Gesta, 24, is nowhere near as good as Marquez and this would be a terrible mismatch. Not only isn’t Gesta as good as Marquez, but he’s never going to be even close to being as good as him. Gesta is just a short, slow, head-handed fighter. I can’t remember ever seeing a fight where he looked good. He’s just a flawed fighter from top to bottom. Gesta is a Top Rank fighter, so it looks like Marquez might do Arum a big favor in facing Gesta in hopes of getting a fourth fight against Pacquiao. If Arum wants attention to Gesta, this is a way of getting but unfortunately it’ll be negative attention because Marquez will whip him bad.