By Chris Williams: IBF/WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (29-1, 18 KO’s) says he might move up to the featherweight division after his fight with 36-year-old former WBC super bantamweight champion Toshiaki Nishioka in October of this year if he can’t get a big fight.

If Rigondeaux does leave the 122 pound division he’ll be walking from perhaps his biggest challenges in WBA World super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux and WBC champion Abner Mares. For some reason Donaire hasn’t gotten around to fighting either one of those guys, preferring instead to fight fighters like super flyweight Omar Narvaez, Wilfredo Vazquez Jr and Jeffrey Mathebula. Now Donaire is facing 36-year-old Nishioka, who is coming off of a performance where he was lucky to win against an over the hill Rafael Marquez last October.

Donaire said this about Rigondeaux at RingTV “His style is what I master. I’m purely a boxer. There’s no one in my life who’s ever out-boxed me. He’s shorter than me, so he will never be able to outbox me. If he tries to box me, it’s already my game.”

Donaire is only one inch taller than Rigondeaux, so it’s hard to buy his argument about being bigger than him. If that’s what Donaire calls being bigger than a fighter than that’s a poor argument because one inch is nothing. I wonder if Donaire has watched Rigondeaux fight before, because he hasn’t been looking to outbox his opponents. Rigondeaux is a counter puncher with blazing fast hands and crushing speed. He’s been knocking everyone out with body shots when they go to throw a punch. Donaire is a boxer, but he’s mainly a puncher. Donaire is perfect for Rigondeaux because Donaire loads up on everything he throws and he’ll be destroyed to the body and head when he tries to land something hard against Rigondeaux.

I just see it as bunch of excuses from Donaire. I don’t believe he wants to fight Rigondeaux, and by moving up in weight after he faces the 36-year-old Nishioka, it’s going to give boxing fans the impression that Donaire is dodging Rigondeaux.