By Chris Williams: Former three division world champion Fernando Montiel (49-4-2, 37 KO’s) will be fighting on June 22nd against the much less experienced Jaderes Padua (8-2-1, 5 KO’s) for the vacant WBC International super bantamweight title. Montiel, #7 WBO, #10 WBC, wants to go after a forth division world title. He’s previously captured world titles at flyweight, super flyweight and bantamweight.
The problem is he’s not a big fighter for the super bantamweight division, and he’s already been beaten by Victor Terrazas by a close 12 round unanimous decision two years ago in November 2011. Terrazas now holds the WBC super bantamweight title and he would seem to be one of two champions that Montiel would have a chance to beat at 122; the other being IBF super bantamweight champion Jhonatan Romero. As far as the WBA/WBO champion Guillermo Rigondeaux, Montiel has no chance at all of beating him and he would be making a big mistake if he were to try to fight him.
That’s a fight that Montiel can’t win. It would be similar to Montiel’s 2nd round TKO blowout against Nonito Donaire from 2011. That was supposed to have been a competitive fight but it turned out to be a bad mismatch with Donaire easily beating Montiel. At this point in Montiel’s career, I don’t think he can beat Jhonatan Romero or Terrazas. Those guys are younger and they’re natural super bantamweights. They’re not like Montiel, a fighter who has moved up from flyweight to super flyweight, bantamweight and finally super bantamweight.
Montiel probably belongs more at super flyweight and/or bantamweight rather than super bantamweight, but there aren’t any big name opponents at that weight. Montiel has to fight at super bantamweight to be in the position to potentially get the bigger names like Donaire to fight him; not that Donaire will ever fight him again. I think there will never be a 2nd fight between Montiel and Donaire unless Montiel suddenly started facing quality opposition again and started beating them.
Montiel hasn’t beaten a really good fighter in a long time since he defeated Nehomar Cermeno two years ago in June of 2011. Since Montiel was beaten by Terrazas in 2011, he’s fought three times against weak opposition. Montiel’s fight with Pandua on June 22nd is a continuation of that trend of taking easy fights.
If Montiel wants a big fight then he’s going to need to start facing better opposition because taking tune-up fight after tune-up fight against guys that aren’t in his league like the 8-2 Pandua won’t get Montiel that big fight he’s looking for. He needs to take on someone good.
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