As reported by Thaboxingvoice.com last week, Nonito Donaire is targeting a comeback on foreign terrain sometime within the first 3-5 months of 2015. Bob Arum told Joe Habeeb that Donaire will either fight in Manila in March or Macau in May.
As the days pass it seems more likely that Donaire (33-3, 21KOs) will fight in Macau where he enjoys a very fan partisan crowd. The Chinese fans come in droves to see Donaire, so it is a great location for him to ease back into the mix after losing to Nicholas Walters in October of 2014.
There is still no opponent set for Donaire, but ESPN’s Dan Rafael reports that Donaire will move down to junior featherweight (122lbs) for his next bout.
Rafael interviewed Donaire’s manager Cameron Dunkin who is working towards securing an opponent.
“[Donaire] is going to fight at 122,” Dunkin told Rafael. “We’ve talked about it but don’t know who we are going to fight yet. But Nonito wants to fight and we’ll get him fighting again. He knows he can’t fight at that weight [126 pounds]. He can beat a lot of featherweights, don’t get me wrong. But he’s used to beating everyone and being the best. He’s going back to 122 where he can do that.”
The number of big fights doesn’t dramatically decrease for Donaire, who will be dropping four pounds from the featherweight limit of 126lbs. There had been talks of a featherweight tournament involving Donaire and some of the other top fighters in the division like Abner Mares, Vasyl Lomachenko, and Evgeny Gradovich. While those fights would be big, Donaire can still find some solid paydays at the lower weight class.
Fans salivated at the idea of Donaire and Mares squaring off, but time and losses have severely diminished the demand for that fight.
Now, it would seem like Donaire and junior featherweight titlist Leo Santa Cruz would make sense and could potentially take the place of the lost Donaire-Mares fight. Donaire has suffered dramatic setbacks, but Santa Cruz has yet to face an opponent of Donaire’s talents, so it would be a compelling fight that could answer the questions regarding the seriousness of Santa Cruz’s skills and whether or not Donaire has anything left.
If that fight can’t be made then Donaire still has options. Both Carl Frampton and Scott Quigg present interesting matchups in the weight class.
