Withing two rounds Saturday night, newly crowned bantamweight king Nonito Donaire stamped his claim to being one of the pound for pound best in boxing by knocking out Fernando Montiel.
Unfortunately, before settling in to his new role, the public talk of Donaire climbling a weight-class or two had already begun.
Maybe Donaire could tangle with featherweights Juan Manuel Lopez, or Yuriorkis Gamboa, speculators debated and Donaire himself spoke of a possible bout with the winner of a bantamweight fight between Wilfredo Vazquez Junior and Jorge Arce.
Donaire is a product of boxing?s present day obsession with fighters climbing multiple weight classes during their careers, instead of strapping down and dominating a division.
?The Filipino Flash? has come into his own, with amazing speed, atheltic ability, and power, and it would be inriguing to see him clean out a bantamweight class consisting of Abner Mares, Joseph Agbeko, Yonnhy Perez, and Vic Darchinyan.
Of course, promotional entanglements help set any boxers agenda, and while Vazquez, Arce, Gamboa, and Lopez all fight for Top Rank – just like Donaire, Mares, Agbeko, Perez, and Darchinyan all work for rival promoters.
It is a matter of choice, what is more awe inspiring, seeing a fighter scale several weighclasses to fight the best, or cleaning out a division and leaving no room for debate as to who rules the land.
I for one, would like to see Donaire dominate bantamweight, which might be a more realistic task than getting sent off to battle bigger men such as Gamboa and Lopez, or participate in uninteresting affairs against Vazquez and Arce.
