WBA Super World featherweight champion Nonito Donaire (33-2, 21 KOs) says he’s not ready to give up his spot to the little known 28-year-old Nicholas Walters (24-0, 20 KOs) in their fight later on tonight on HBO Championship Boxing from the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
The 31-year-old Donaire thinks he’s still got enough in the tank to get past the likes of Walters. However, Donaire has not looked good in his last several bouts, and there are some boxing fans who think that he played injured in his last fight against Simpiwe Vetyeka in order to win a world title in 5 rounds instead of going the full distance.
Donaire looked like he was going to have a ton of problems in that fight. He said he couldn’t see out of his cut left eye, which looked like it hadn’t gotten any worse since he first received the cut in the 1st.
“I think he has that hunger, but I’m not ready to croak yet,” Donaire told ESPN.com. “I’m not ready to give up that spot that I have earned in boxing. He can try his best. He’s a very talented and hard-punching fighter, a very dangerous fighter. But I feel it’s not time yet for me to give up my position.”
Donaire may have to come to terms soon that he’s lost his spot, because his promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank wants to match the winner of the Donaire-Walters fight against WBO featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko in their next fight. That’s not a good match-up for Donaire, because Lomachenko can do everything that Donaire can but arguably much better. The Walters fight is really just the prelinary test for Donaire.
The real test comes against Lomachenko. Arum said that Donaire and IBF champion Evgeny Gradovich are friends, so that’s not a fight that he’ll be looking to make. That leaves Lomachenko, who some fans feel is by far the best fighter in the featherweight division.
Walters has the size, power and defensive skills to give Donaire a lot of troubles in this fight tonight. If Donaire can’t score a knockout or if he doesn’t pull out of the fight early with another injury of some sorts, he could be in for a really grueling fight. Walters made easy work of Vic Darchinyan recently in knocking him out in 5 rounds. This is the same Darchinyan who Donaire had to struggle hard to beat last year in November.
