By Chris Williams: I don’t know if WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (28-1, 18 kO’s) has been taking any notice, but WBA World super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (10-0, 8 KO’s) is quickly turning into a star in the United States after only 10 fights.

With recent knockout wins over Teon Kennedy and Rico Ramos, Rigondeaux is closing in on Hayward, California star.

Just when Rigondeaux is blowing out one fighter after another with superb body shots, Donaire is struggling in his last two fights against Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. and Omar Narvaez. The timing of Donaire’s mediocrity and Rigondeaux’s excellent performances re doing a good job of raising Rigondeaux’s stock and sinking Donaire’s standing with the boxing public. Donaire doesn’t seem to be willing to take responsibility for his poor performances, and instead has blamed it on his opponents Narvaez and Vazquez Jr. not wanting to come to fight. Oh, they came to fight already, but they didn’t come to just stand in front of Donaire as stationary targets like many of the guys that Donaire’s promoter Bob Arum has matched him up against during his career.

On July 7th, Donaire is fighting IBF super bantamweight champion Jeffrey Mathebula (26-3-2, 14 KO’s), a 33-year-old title holder from South Africa, who few boxing fans have ever seen before. In the brief clips that I’ve seen of Mathebula, he seems like a good stationary type fighter that Donaire should be able to beat in an impressive fashion on July 7th. Technically, Mathebula is a world champion. However, with all the world titles floating around in every division causing the talent to be watered down dramatically, I see Mathebula as more of a bottom 25 to bottom 30 fighter. I don’t see him as being talented enough to be a top 20 fighter, and definitely not top 10 or top 5. In other words, this is a fighter that Donaire should be able to beat impressively so that he can end his streak of poor performances.

It’s going to have to be an exceptional performance from Donaire, though, if he wants to keep a distance between him and Rigondeaux. I don’t think Donaire can, however, because Rigondeaux is clearly the much more superior fighter of the two. Talent has a way of floating to the top, and Donaire is about to be surpassed by the rising Cuban star.

It is interesting that Donaire has shown zero interest in wanting to fight Rigondeaux. Instead of taking on Rigondeaux, we’re seeing Donaire face little known Mathebula. Rigondeaux keeps calling Donaire out, but is ignored by him. It wouldn’t be an issue if Donaire was facing really quality fighters, but by taking on Mathebula, it just looks like Donaire is dodging Rigondeaux to avoid having his hype train stopped dead in it’s tracks.