Donaire-Mathebula: Arum looking to turn Nonito into a huge star

By Boxing News - 06/21/2012 - Comments

Image: Donaire-Mathebula: Arum looking to turn Nonito into a huge starBy Chris Williams: WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (28-1, 18 KO’s) gets in the ring on July 7th to fight a unification bout against IBF super bantamweight champion Jeffrey Mathebula (26-3-2, 14 KO’s) at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California.

Although the fight is a unification bout on paper, it might as well be another one of Donaire’s fights against another no named fighter. This fight hasn’t attracted must interest at all, and I don’t see why Bob Arum, Donaire’s promoter, wasted the time in setting up this fight. I take that back. I think I know why he’s doing it. Arum is trying to give the impression to boxing fans that Donaire is the top guy at super bantamweight by having him go after some of the paper champions. Fair enough, but if Donaire isn’t going to face ALL of the super bantamweight champions then why do it? This just looks like trickery to me.

You know and I know that Donaire won’t be matched up against the best super bantamweight in the division in WBA champ Guillero Rigondeaux. That fight isn’t going to happen because Donaire has already said he has no interest in fighting Rigondeaux. He says he has a boring style, but he’s knocking everyone out and he’s unbeaten, unlike Mathebula. It just seems so painfully obvious that Rigondeaux is being avoided because he’s too good for Donaire. I wish Donaire would surprise me and agree to fight Rigondeaux, but that’s not going to happen.

Arum is hoping to turn Donaire into a huge moneymaking star. There’s nothing earth shattering about that, because that’s what promoters do with their fighters.

However, I don’t think he’s going to be able to do that with the 29-year-old Donaire despite the fact that Donaire has a huge already build in fan base in the United States. I bet Arum would love to turn Donaire into a big PPV star like his no.1 fighter Manny Pacquiao, but I can’t see that happening. How do you make a star out of Donaire if you’re unwilling to put him in with the best fighter in the super bantamweight division? How do you make a star out of Donaire if you can’t put him in with the best featherweights for fear he’ll get knocked out. Do you honestly think Arum will match Donaire with Orlando Salido? Or how about Adrien Broner at super featherweight? I see Donaire getting knocked cold by both of those guys. But he’s not going to be a huge star beating the Mathebulas or the Omar Narvaez’s of the boxing world.

I think Donaire’s time to make it big was lost between 2007 and 2011 with Donaire being matched against less than big named opponents. He didn’t look good at all in moving up to the super bantamweight division in his last fight against Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. last February and it gets much tougher than Vazquez Jr. as you go up.



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