Donaire and Magsayo look headed for comeback fights.
It looks like the Filipino Flash can become the first ever four-time bantamweight champion in history sometime soon. Nonito Donaire Jr. will get that rare chance at making history thanks to the WBC ordering a title fight between Donaire and Australia’s Jason Moloney for the now vacant WBC bantamweight title.
The announcement, made during the annual WBC Convention and confirmed by both Boxingscene.com and World Boxing News, means the Donaire and Moloney camps can start negotiating the title fight — with both sides having until February 17 to reach a deal. In case of an impasse, a purse bid will be held thereby ensuring the bout does take place as mandated by the WBC.
Either way, the 39-year-old Donaire will get the opportunity to reclaim the bantamweight championship he lost last June to Japanese sensation Naoya Inoue via brutal knockout. The Filipino-Flash had previously won the same title against the erstwhile unbeaten Nordine Oubaali — via impressive TKO — and defended it once against compatriot Reymart Gaballo, who was also undefeated before meeting Donaire.
This positive development comes on the heels of Inoue vacating his unified bantamweight belts early this year to compete at junior featherweight, where he is expected to get an immediate title shot against Stephen Fulton. Donaire and Moloney will get first crack at Inoue’s vacated WBC title because they are the WBC’s top-ranked active bantamweights, with Moloney, who is 25-2, number 1 and Donaire number 2.
Elsewhere, another Filipino prizefighter, Mark Magsayo, will be looking to jumpstart his bid to reclaim the WBC featherweight title — and he will likely have to do it against dangerous volume puncher Brandon Figueroa.
ESPN reported the Magsayo and Figueroa camps are finalizing the March 4 bout, which will potentially pit the WBC’s number 1 (Figueroa) and number 3 (Magsayo) ranked WBC featherweights. This means the winner will likely have the inside track at a fight with WBC featherweight champ Rey Vargas.
Barring a major snag in negotiations, it appears both Donaire and Magsayo will be back in the ring soon enough.