By Chris Williams: WBA Super World featherweight champion Simpiwe Vetyeka (26-2, 16 KO’s) will be defending his title tonight against former three division world champion Nonito Donaire (32-2, 21 KO’s) in a fight that will be televised on HBO at 4 pm ET/PT from the Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort, Macao, Macao S.A.R., China.
Vetyeka, 33, sees Donaire as a bully that he’s going to expose tonight and put him in his place in front of the entire world. Vetyeka isn’t worried about what Donaire has done in the past in his fights against smaller fighters in the super flyweight, bantamweight and super bantamweight divisions, because he feels that he’s a fighter that doesn’t match up well with him and he plans on giving him a beating.
Donaire’s career is pretty much on the line tonight. He may not be ready to admit it, but it pretty much is. A loss to Vetyeka would be Donaire’s second loss in his last three fights, and it’s difficult to imagine HBO continuing to televise his fights if that happens. They obviously like the fact that Donaire was dominant in the past, but he’s not anymore. He was beaten by Guillermo Rigondeaux last April by a 12 round decision, and instead of trying to avenge the loss by fighting Rigondeaux again on HBO, Donaire fought a fighter he’s already easily knocked out in the past in Vic Darchinyan. Donaire stopped Darchinyan in the 9th round last November in a fight that Donaire didn’t look good in.
It looked bad for Donaire to take the fight with Darchinyan instead of Rigondeaux, but Donaire made it worse by taking a real beating from the 38-year-old. Now Donaire is moving up to the featherweight division to fight Vetyeka, and it’s a fight that Donaire absolutely needs if he wants to remain viable. A loss for him in this fight would mean that he’s probably not cut out to be fighting at featherweight. With his promoter Bob Arum, Donaire would likely get another world title shot against another featherweight – either Evgeny Gradovich or Nicholas Walters – in his next fight in hopes that he could maybe get lucky and win a strap in his second attempt. But I don’t think it’ll make much difference.
Donaire doesn’t have the advantages in size in this weight class like he did at super bantamweight, bantamweight and super flyweight. That means he’s fighting guys who are on even terms with him size-wise, and that means he’ll be forced to take massive punishment each time he fights. The thing is Donaire isn’t the type of fighter that is good at taking punishment.
“I trained three months for this fight,” Vetyeka said via Philboxing.com. “I expect to see the Nonito Donaire that is a bully in the ring. I am prepared to frustrate him. There is only one way to handle a bully. I am a warrior and I am going to return everything he tries to serve me, only it will be hotter. I will take the fight to Donaire from the first bell. I intend to end this fight early. I have no fear of him. He is not going beat me. This is my title and more importantly this is my time.”
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