Nonito Donaire Jr. and Jamaican Nicholas Walters will collide in a virtual unification title fight for the WBA featherweight crown on Oct. 18 at StubHub Center in Carson, California.
According to espn.com and other Internet fight websites, the two WBA champions have agreed to lock horns in a showdown co-headlining the middleweight title clash between Gennady Golovkin and Marco Antonio Rubio.
In the strange WBA realm, Donaire (33-2-0 with 21 knockouts) owns the title of “super champion,” while Walters (24-0-0 with 20 KOs) is the “regular champion” in the 126-pound class.
Walters, 28, scored a fifth-round knockout of former champion Vic Darchinyan last May 31 in Macau. Donaire, who starred in the fight card’s main event, pulled off a controversial fifth-round technical decision win over erstwhile titlist Simpiwe Vetyeka of South Africa.
The 5-foot-7 Walters, who packs power on both fists, could be Donaire’s toughest foe so far and pundits have installed the 31-year-old Filipino, a four-division champ, as the underdog.
Carl Moretti, vice president of Top Rank Promotions, was quoted by espn.com that the Donaire-Walters fight has been agreed upon although the contract has not been prepared.
“It’s Walters’ relative youth versus Donaire’s experience,” Moretti told the website. “Walters is a strong, younger, hungry fighter. Donaire is an established pound-for-pound fighter, one of the biggest names in the sport still.”
And though Walters, who has knocked out his last four opponents, stirs excitement with his all-out style, Moretti said Donaire—or at least the 2012 version of the Filipino—is a fighter who has gone through it all.
“It’s not like Donaire hasn’t faced guys like this before,” said Moretti. “We know Donaire has been there before.”
In the same week he won the consensus Fighter of the Year two years ago, Donaire suffered a morale-deflating loss to Cuban stylist Guillermo Rigondeaux in New York City.