By Michael Collins: Nonito Donaire (27-1, 18 KO’s) will be looking to capture his 3rd world title this Saturday night against Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. (21-1-1, 18 KO’s) in a fight the vacant WBO super bantamweight title at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. This is basically a paper title, because it’s vacant and was given up by champion Jorge Arce.
Vazquez Jr. is a rather poor choice to be fighting for a title when he was beaten recently by Arce. You got to love how some fighters are permitted to quickly fight for another title even when they just lost. The Donaire-Vazquez Jr. fight will be televised by HBO and shown on the undercard of the featured bout between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Marco Antonio Rubio.
This fight isn’t what will make or break Donaire’s legacy. This is more of a stay busy fight for him. Vazquez Jr. will give it a good try but he looked terrible against Arce and that’s not a good sign going into this fight. Donaire will destroy this guy and depending on what his promoter Bob Arum wants him to do, Donaire may face Arce next and then Toshiaki Nishioka, the WBC super bantamweight champion. Donaire plans on moving up quickly to featherweight. That’s where he could be really tested if he faces Juan Manuel Lopez, Orlando Salido and Yuriorkis Gamboa. Any of those guys will be problems for Donaire because they know how to block punches and will landing their own big shots. We’ll find out quickly enough if Donaire had a good chin or not.
Like in all of his fights, Donaire, 5’7”, will have a huge height and reach advantage over the 5’5” Vazquez. That size advantage will disappear for Donaire as he moves up in weight and he’ll have to count more on his speed and power to get him through the bigger guys.