By Sevak Sarkisian: On July 14th the super gifted Nonito Donaire will be stepping into the ring with former two time super flyweight champion Christian Mijares. Nonito just won the vacant WBO super bantamweight world title this past February against Wilfredo Vazquez junior. Vazquez fought a smart fight and used his skills and defense. It was Donaire’s first time fighting at super bantamweight and it was clear he doesn’t operate as efficiently as he does at the lower weight divisions even though he managed to squeak out a split decision win.
Donaire has now gone through two fights in a row looking ordinary. However to his credit he was in the ring with high caliber world class opponents that are difficult to look good against. His promoters know he has to look dominant and produce some sort of excitement his next time out and that is specifically the reason why Cristian Mijares was chosen as his opponent for his next fight.
Mijares is a good fighter with decent boxing skills and an awesome jab. However, his best work has been done at super flyweight and he lacks power in his punches. The chances of him hurting Donaire are minimal considering the fact that he only has 20 knockouts in 44 fights. His ring general ship should help him make this a somewhat competitive fight but in my humble opinion Donaire being a title holder at super bantamweight should be defending his title against an opponent with more credentials and accomplishments at super bantamweight such as WBC super-bantamweight champion Toshiaki Nishioka. But instead he will be fighting Mijares, a fighter who belongs two weight classes below and has been knocked out by Vic Darchinyan at super flyweight. If Donaire was planning on defending his super bantamweight title against a super flyweight why didn’t he just stay at super flyweight?