By Michael Collins: Nonito Donaire (27-1, 18 KO’s) will be trying to add another belt to his growing collection next month against Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. (21-1-1, 18 KO’s) on February 4th in a fight for the vacant WBO super bantamweight title on the undercard of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Marco Antonio Rubio at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
This was a halfway decent when it was first announced months ago, but that was before Guillermo Rigondeaux destroyed WBA World super bantamweight champion Rico Ramos last Friday night.
Now the Donaire-Vazquez fight seems like a rather disappointing fight because Vazquez was knocked out by Jorge Arce last May and hasn’t done anything to redeem himself in terms of facing quality opposition and here he is getting an almost immediate shot at a title. Donaire is merely fighting Arce’s leftovers and making excuses for why he doesn’t want to fight Rigondeaux.
That kind of stuff is done all the time, it makes Donaire look like someone who is taking the easy path to a belt rather than take on Rigondeaux or WBC super bantamweight champion Toshiaki Nishioka. In fairness to Donaire, he does plan on facing Nishioka after he fights Arce this year.
Donaire probably won’t fight Rigondeaux, even though he’s now arguably much more popular than all three of those choices in the United States. There’s no crying for a Donaire-Nishioka right now nor is there anyone excited about seeing Donaire face Arce, a guy that has been beaten previously by a number of fighters. The last time I checked, no one has beaten Rigondeaux, and I can see him beating Arce, Nishioka and Vazquez Jr. without any problems.
Vazquez Jr. will lose to Donaire. This is a mismatch. Vazquez really needs about a year of rebuilding after the Arce knockout before being thrown in with Donaire. I would expect the same for Donaire if he was as badly beaten as Vazquez Jr. was by Arce. That’s not to say that Arce is the best, because he’s clearly not. We’ve seen him get easily beaten by previous Donaire victim Vic Darchinyan.