Undefeated champion Nicholas Walters is hoping that Nonito Donaire Jr., will come to fight—and not run—when they clash on Oct. 18 for the unified WBA featherweight title at StubHub Center in Carson, California.
Oozing with confidence in the last phase of his camp in Panama, the Jamaican regular champion of the World Boxing Association told wbanews.com that if Donaire, WBA’s Super Champion, engages him in toe-to-toe action he would knock out the Filipino in five to six rounds.
Donaire is expected to take Walters’ fearless prediction with a grain of salt especially because Walters is making just his first fight against a big-name boxer like the Filipino Flash.
“I am ready to box, because I don’t think Nonito is coming to fight. I wish he does, to get it over with,” said Walters, who sports an impressive 24-0-0 card with 21 knockouts.
He said he is hungrier than Donaire and that the 31-year-old four-division champ has not been tested long enough at 126 pounds.
“I like to win with beautiful boxing, not running,” Walters told the website. “I want to be the kind of boxer who defeats a great figure like (Floyd) Mayweather, then he leaves the ring.”
For him, Donaire only “has a good jab; fights well. But I will do it better.”
Donaire (33-2-0 with 21 KOs) taunts many of his opponents to mix it up with him.
“The champion constantly repeats, he is not hungrier than I am because if he wants to be the champion to buy a house, I want to buy 10,” said the 28-year-old Walters.
The Donaire-Walters fight is the co-main event in the world middleweight title fight between Gennady Golovkin and Marco Antonio Rubio. Marc Anthony Reyes