By Justin Cabarle: WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (28-1, 18 KO’s) took the time to defend his choice of facing little known IBF super bantamweight champion Jeffrey Mathebula (26-3-2, 14 KO’s) to fight next on July 7th instead of the better known but arguably weaker Cristian Mijares.
Speaking on his facebook page, Donaire said “Entertaining how a lot of people think they understand boxing by dropping names here and there and don’t see why I picked Mathebula over Mijares. They don’t get why having two belts is worth anything or how hard it is to reach a negotiation with certain fighters. Some make height divisions even, but it’s cool. The people who ride with me now are the important ones to me, not the ones who ride later.”
It sounds like Donaire has a chip on his shoulder about his choice of opponent. I honestly don’t hear anyone complaining about Donaire not facing Mijares. The only stuff I had heard about the Mijares-Donaire fight was that it was considered by a lot of boxing fans to be a “Garbage fight”, and another example of Donaire facing a weaker opponent. The fighter that I’m hearing that boxing fans want to see Donaire fight is WBA World super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux, who is considered by many boxing fans to be the best fighter in the super bantamweight division right now.
Why Donaire doesn’t want to fight Rigondeaux is the big question. He has a title belt in his possession, so Donaire can’t make excuses about him not having one. However, Donaire has already said that he sees Rigondeaux as a boring fighter and he doesn’t have interest in facing him. I guess it’s all for the best, right? At least by taking Mathebula instead of the arguably much more dangerous Rigondeaux, Donaire can avoid a potentially embarrassing loss that would be hard to explain away. Boxing fans won’t buy an injury excuse from Donaire if he were to lose to Rigondeaux, because Donaire recently used that excuse for his struggles to defeat Wilfredo Vazquez Jr in his last fight in February.