On Saturday night, WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire faces WBA champion Guillermo Rigondeaux in New York City in the biggest fight of 2013 so far. Donaire is the bigger of the two and the Filipino hasn’t lost a fight for 12 years but nobody is ruling out slight underdog Rigondeaux, who won two Olympic gold medals with Cuba and is unbeaten his 11 professional fights.
With Abner Mares moving up to featherweight to face Daniel Ponce de Leon, the winner of this Saturday’s unification clash will be the king of the 122lbs division because the other fighters at super bantamweight aren’t in the same league as Donaire and Rigondeaux. It’s good to see the lower divisions getting this much attention because normally anything below 140lbs does not get much publicity. There have been some great fighters at flyweight, bantamweight, featherweight and lightweight over the years but if you ask any boxing fan to compile a list of the 50 greatest fighters of all time, 45 of those fighters will probably fight at welterweight or higher.
I expect Donaire to vacate the WBA strap if he beats Rigondeaux because the winner will probably be forced to face interim champion Scott Quigg and it’s unlikely that HBO will be enthusiastic about showing that fight. Donaire has already vacated his IBF strap because he didn’t want to fight his mandatory challenger which is disappointing because I like to see fighters trying to become undisputed champion but it is understandable that Donaire wants his fights to be shown on HBO.
This is a really hard fight to call because I don’t think Donaire has ever faced anyone with the kind of ability that Rigondeaux has but the Cuban has never fought anyone as good as Donaire either. Donaire has obviously had a great career but because he’s never faced a top class opponent in their prime there are still some doubts about whether he is good enough to deal with a fellow world class operator.
While Rigondeaux is an excellent fighter, the amateur ranks are not as strong as they used to be and I don’t think he has the experience in the professional game to handle a fighter as fast and powerful as Donaire for 12 rounds. As long as the Filipino doesn’t come out swinging wildly to try and finish the fight early, which would play into the hands of a lethal counter puncher like Rigondeaux, I see Donaire wearing him down and winning by a late KO. If he does win convincingly, there will be a serious debate about whether Donaire can be as good as fellow Filipino Manny Pacquiao
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