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Following his impressive win last night over David De La Mora on Showtime, WBA bantamweight titleholder Anselmo Moreno hopes he can land a fight with pound-for-pound contender Nonito Donaire. From Chris Robinson at the Examiner:
"I have the same advisor as Sergio ‘Maravilla' Martinez and if [Julio Cesar] Chavez [Jr.] fights Martinez, I would love to fight on the undercard against Nonito Donaire, if he has the courage to confront me. I hope that I won't have as much trouble as Martinez has," said Moreno.
Unfortunately, as most everyone understands, there are huge problems here. For as much genuine good as Golden Boy is doing for Moreno's career, a fight with Donaire is beyond everyone's reach. Donaire is promoted by Top Rank. Moreno is promoted by Golden Boy. Let's go to the graphic!
If Moreno really thinks there's any chance he's going to fight Donaire, he may not understand this, but there's a decent chance he's just throwing out a big name to keep himself in the headlines. To be clear, I'm sure Moreno does want to fight Donaire. But it's not going to happen and it's basically pointless to call him out. It's nothing to do with the fighters. The people who handle their careers won't be letting this happen.
Moreno (33-1-1, 12 KO) is without question a world-class fighter, bordering on the elite (if you think he's only bordering), and is going to be a damn tough matchup for anyone at 118 or 122 going forward.
One does wonder if Donaire would really want to fight Moreno even if it were possible. Moreno isn't exciting and doesn't let guys beat him up, which seems to be the only type of fighter Donaire is really interested in facing. He likes to shine. That's why he so aggressively turned down Guillermo Rigondeaux even though reality was Top Rank wasn't going to make him fight Rigondeaux or anything.
It seems like a lot of folks want to see Moreno move up to 122 and take a fight with Abner Mares. That one's possible, and frankly given that GBP has limited options at 118/122, might be the only really good option for either of them. Maybe no one's too concerned about whether or not an option is "really good," and last night's "fairly acceptable" standards for both will continue going forward.