If ESPN.com is to be believed, Donaire will face Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. on Feb. 4 at the famed Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
Already, Donaire, even if he?s newly-married, has been training in earnest, not wanting to take any chances against Vazquez, a Puerto Rican who is actually a former world champion himself in the same weight class.
Donaire, the reigning WBO and WBC bantamweight (118-pound) champion, will gun for the vacant WBO (World Boxing Organization) super bantamweight crown (122-pound) as he chases his dream to imitate Pacquiao as a multi-titled champion.
Featured as the main undercard in the fight featuring the unbeaten Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. against either Marco Antonio Rubio or undefeated Vanes Martirosyan, the Donaire-Vazquez tiff is being billed as the first real test for the ?Filipino Flash? if he could scale more heights a la Pacquiao (eight-division champ).
Donaire has a dangerous opponent in Vazquez.
Vazquez held the crown until Jorge Arce of Mexico toppled him by a 12th-round TKO in May after Arce had miraculously risen from a fourth-round knockdown.
Stunningly, Arce abdicated his throne to move back to 118-pound, the division now being abandoned by Donaire himself.
Meanwhile, Bob Arum, Pacquiao?s American promoter, absorbed a technical knockout himself in his frenetic bid to pit Pacquiao against Floyd Mayweather Jr. after Mayweather got floored by a lady judge in Las Vegas, Nevada.
After entering a guilty plea to a 2010 charge of domestic violence, Mayweather was slapped a 90-day jail sentence starting Jan. 6–effectively torpedoing a projected May 6 encounter with Pacquiao.
