(Photo credit: Naoki Fakuda) By Chris Williams: IBF/WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (29-1, 18 KO’s) easily made weight on Friday during his weigh-in for his bout on Saturday night against Toshiaki Nishioka (39-4-3, 24 KO’s) in a fight card that will be televised on HBO from the Home Depot Center, in Carson, California. Donaire, looking nervous and not as confident as usual, weighed in at 121.6 pounds. Nishioka, 36, looked much more at ease during the weigh-in, and came in at 121.8.

Donaire has been saying over and over again for anyone that’s interested in hearing him repeat himself that Nishioka is the best fighter in the entire super bantamweight division. If Donaire is actually right and not just talking to make himself look better, then he could be in for a really tough fight on Saturday night against the hard hitting Nishioka.

Donaire has already looked terrible in his last three fights against Omar Narvaez, Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. and Jeffrey Mathebula, blaming his poor performances on his opponents fighting defensive fights rather than him not having brought his power up with him when he moved up in weight. But if Nishioka also makes Donaire look bad then you have to figure that Donaire simply doesn’t have the power at this weight that he had at super flyweight. In that respect he would be just like Vic Darchinyan, who has also had problems after moving up to bantamweight and now super bantamweight with his knockout percentages trailing off badly.

Donaire is #5 in the Ring Magazine pound for pound list. You have to figure that will drop dramatically if Donaire gets beaten or if he struggles again. He’s just not looking like he really deserves to be on the list anymore since moving up to super bantamweight. Of course, this wouldn’t the first time that Ring Magazine has been slow in changing their rankings to represent reality. We saw Bernard Hopkins still at the top of the light heavyweight long after Chad Dawson was considered the best by ring experts, and now we’re seeing more lag with Ring magazine with Donaire still at #5 in the pound for pound list.

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In light welterweight action, a sickly looking Brandon Rios (30-0-1, 22 KO’s) made weight for his fight against Mike Alvarado (33-0, 23 KO’s) for their fight for the vacant WBO Latino light welterweight and WBO light welterweight title eliminator bout. Rios, 26, came in right at 140 and was lucky this time he made after failing big time in his last fight against Richard Abril last April in a lightweight fight. The fact that Rios had to really struggle to make 140 today suggests that he’s not going to do much at this weight.

Rios’ promoter Bob Arum better hurry him into a fight against Manny Pacquiao, because he’s going to be too weight drained to beat the best fighters at this weight in Lucas Matthysse and Danny Garcia. I doubt Rios will even beat Alvarado, unless we get another controversial decision for Rios. I can see him beating that way, although the won’t be winning any new fans if he gets another gift decision like the one he got for the Abril fight.

Alvarado came in at 139.8 lbs, and looked a lot healthier. He didn’t appear to struggle at all to make this weight, and I expect him to be the much stronger fighter tomorrow night.

Here are the full weights for the card:

Nonito Donaire 121.6 – Toshiaki Nishioka 121.8
Mike Alvarado 139.8 – Brandon Rios 140
Jose Benavidez, Jr. 143.4 – Pavel Miranda 144.2
Jose Roman 136 vs. Javier Garcia 135.6
Evgeny Gradovich 125.6 – Jose Angel Beranza 125.4
Trevor McCumby 174.4 – Eliseo Durazo 178.4
Ronald Ellis 168 – Katrell Straus 167.2
Saul Rodriguez 129.6 – Cesar Garcia 130
Victor Pasillas 121.2 – Jazzma Hogue 120.8