By Chris Williams: Right now, WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (28-1, 18 KO’s) is seen as a vulnerable champion right now by the top fighters in the bantamweight and super bantamweight divisions.

They saw for themselves that Donaire isn’t the same fighter at super bantamweight compared to when he was fighting super flyweight where he typically towered over his much smaller opposition. At that weight, Donaire was the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. for that division. But at super bantamweight, Donaire’s size advantage 122, Donaire is no bigger than anyone else, and is much more vulnerable as we saw in his fight against Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. last February.

Donaire took a lot of punishment in that fight, and although he won it, he looked like the loser of the fight afterwards when looking at his face. If a fighter like Vazquez Jr. can do that to Donaire, just imagine what the real cream of the super bantamweight division can do to him.

However, Donaire’s promoter isn’t matching him against the real cream of the division. Instead, he’s putting him in with #14 WBC Cristian Mijares (45-6-2, 21 KO’s) on July 14th at the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Mijares, 30, is a safe fight for Donaire because he can’t punch and is really nothing more than a pumped up super flyweight with little power.

There are a number of fighters that want to tangle with Donaire, such as WBC super bantamweight champion Abner Mares, WBC champ Guillermo Rigondeaux, WBA bantamweight champion Anselmo Moreno and Jorge Arce. Donaire will definitely be facing Arce soon, but I can’t say he’ll ever face Moreno, Mares or Rigondeaux. I see those guys as being off limits to Donaire for eternity. Even if he wants to fight them, I can’t see him being allowed to fight them because they’re too dangerous and they would have too good of a chance of ruining his little money train before he becomes the next Manny Pacquiao. To build a Pacquiao, you have to match Donaire carefully because he could loss after loss, and then the boxing public would lose interest completely. But in matching him against recognizable light punchers like Mijares, Donaire can slowly be turned into a star.