Nonito ?The Filipino Flash? Donaire, 19-1, 12 KO?s, has announced loudly and clearly his desire to unify the flyweight titles. Donaire also stated that he would like to start by challenging one of the two Japanese titleholders, Daisuke Naito, and Takefumi Sakata.
This sort of option has become available to Donaire only recently, as he became a titleholder in July of last year with a victory over Vic Darchinyan. The win embodied all that is impressive about the twenty five year old boxer, as he destroyed the seemingly invincible and heavy handed Darchinyan by timing his large and wide right hand and countering with a perfect power shot of his own.
Darchinyan practically vaporized into particles before landing on the mat and failing to rise to his feet in one attempt. Donaire won HBO?s 2007 Knockout of the Year and Upset of the Year with that victory, but the rest of his year was impressive as well. Donaire scored a first round knockout against over-matched tomato can Kevin Hudgins in May and followed the Darchinyan fight with an eighth round knockout of Luis Maldonado. Maldonado is a tough fighter who had only one loss on his record, to none other than Vic Darchinyan, upon entering the bout. Maldonado owns a draw with Cristian Mijares and is still a rather impressive tally in Donaire?s overall victory count.
Those three performances left Donaire with three victories, no losses and three knockouts in 2007. It also left him in position to hold his title over his head and demand matches from the other big names in the division. If he could successfully unify the belts, he would become the first Filipino fighter ever to do so.
Donaire?s choice is one of the more suave business decisions he could make. He was faced with several routes, some of which depended on the actions of other fighters. Aside from Naito and Sakata, there are three fighters in the division that would be worth facing. The first is the fourth division champion, Omar Andres Narvaez. Narvaez is undefeated and carries good pop in both hands. The record of his opposition is excellent but he has not yet faced a fighter near the caliber of a fighter like Donaire. Narvaez won his title by acing undefeated Bernard Inom by eleventh round knockout and has made five successful defenses against fighters of good but not great quality. In the past, he was also boxed to a draw on two separate occasions.
Narvaez, a southpaw, is set to make his next defense at the end of January against Carlos Tamara, a fighter of similarly competitive skill level to the last few men he has faced.
Aside from Narvaez, Donaire could also face the great granddaddy of the flyweight division, Pongsaklek Wonjongkam. Wonjongkam cruised without a loss for eleven years before Naito was able to beat him by unanimous decision last year and obtain his stolen trinket of a belt. He has bounced back with two victories over insignificant fighters and might be looking at regaining a belt. A fight with Donaire would set him up for recognition and a championship. It would also allow him to Americanize his fame and take the flyweight division by the horns. However, the likelihood of Wonjongkam taking on a talented and young fighter such as Donaire after years of abusing no name boxers is not very high.
As a final option outside of the limited championship circles, Donaire could also take on the undefeated youth Koki Kameda. Kameda, a 21 year old Japanese southpaw, started fighting when he was only seventeen years old. Kameda is talented and can still get better, but his power has begun to fade as he faces better and better fighters. Nevertheless, Kameda represents a real challenge and must be out boxed.
The issue with facing Kameda is that he has not fought since last July and he is one of the youngest elite fighters in the world. The chance that he will face a challenge as daunting as Donaire for his next fight after such a long and extended break is probably not appealing to his trainers.
That leaves Donaire to face the men that he originally planned to face. The first, Naito, is a learned and experienced fighter in terms of the path he has taken thus far. His first loss came to Wonjongkam in 2002, when the crafty veteran knocked him out in 34 seconds. The KO was the quickest in the history of the division and set Naito back for three and a half years. After eight wins in a row, he was finally given another shot, but lost the rematch in a seven round technical decision. Finally, in a third showdown that took place last July, Naito was able to narrowly out box Wonjongkam to avenge his first two losses. Naito has since made one successful defense, a unanimous decision victory over undefeated Daiki Kameda. The remaining champion and choice for Donaire, Takefumi Sakata, has had individual demons to quell that are similar to those faced by Naito. Sakata?s four losses have come by way of majority decision to Trash Nakanuma, two separate majority decisions to Lorenzo Parra and a split decision loss he suffered to Roberto Vasquez. Sakata later avenged each and every loss. After falling to Nakanuma in 2002, he would beat him three fights later. After losing to Vasquez in 2006, he would avenge his loss to Parra by a dominant third round knockout and earn a decision over Vasquez in a row in 2007. He is currently coming off of a draw against a very tough Denkaosan Kaovichit.
It seems as though Donaire has picked not only the two men that would make the best fights and the two men with the most history but also the two toughest challengers in his division. All credit to him for taking on real fighters instead of sitting on his belt or holding it over the heads of dream-filled chumps while he lives the good life of a champion. The sport always could use a fighter like Nonito Donaire.
