By Chris Williams: Just as I thought; Bob Arum, the promoter for Nonito Donaire (31-2, 20 KO’s), doesn’t have any plans on matching him against WBA/WBO super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (12-0, 8 KO’s) for his next fight to see if Donaire can get revenge for his 12 round unanimous decision loss at the hands of the Cuban from last Saturday night.
Instead, Arum is going to match Donaire against one of his Top Rank stable fighters former two division world champion Juan Manuel Lopez (32-2, 29 KO’s) near the end of the year after Donaire returns from his shoulder surgery.
Arum said to the Manila Standard “[Donaire] really struggled to make weight and I think that took a little zip out of him and this kid Rigondeaux was awfully fast and awfully elusive. [Donaire will] fight Lopez at 126 pounds in Puerto Rico towards the end of the year. [It] depends on the operation.”
Donaire lost to Rigondeaux by the scores 116-111, 115-112 and 114-113. Arum though the fight was close and so did a tiny handful of writers. The rest of the boxing world pretty much saw Rigondeaux winning an easy decision by 11 rounds to 1 and/or 10 rounds to 2.
Lopez would seem like the perfect opponent for Donaire’s first fight at 126. Lopez was once considered to be the best fighter at featherweight, but he’s now lost two out of his last four fights and not looked really good in ages.
Lopez will be fighting this Saturday night against William Prado (20-3-1, 13 KO’s) in a scheduled 10 round bout at the Arena Ciudad de Mexico, in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico. This is another one of Lopez’s tune-up fights to get his confidence and skills back to where they once were before his two knockout losses to Orlando Salido.
This could be a very tough fight for Donaire potentially because Lopez still has good power and excellent boxing skills. The only question about Lopez is his chin. He’s never had a great chin and his two stoppage losses to Salido could have taken a lot out of him.
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