Nonito Donaire finally has a fight date to go along with his named opponent for another title opportunity.
The former four-division champ will face Mexico’s Alexandro Santiago for the vacant WBC bantamweight title on July 15 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The long-in-place bout will serve as the co-feature to the already confirmed Frank Martin-Artem Harutyunyan lightweight bout as part of a Showtime tripleheader.
As previously reported by BoxingScene, Donaire-Santiago was approved by the WBC on February 16. The ruling came three months after Donaire was previously ordered to next face Australia’s Jason Moloney, who—through Top Rank—opted to instead go the WBO route, as he has claimed that title following a twelve-round win over Vincent Astrolabio on May 13 in Stockton, California.
The WBC went down the list of available contenders before Santiago (27-3-5, 14KOs) raised his hand to face Donaire for the title left behind by former undisputed bantamweight king Naoya Inoue (24-0, 21KOs).
Santiago will enter his second career title fight. The 27-year-old Tijuana native held then-IBF junior bantamweight titlist Jerwin Ancajas to a twelve-round draw in their September 2018 clash in Oakland, California.
An eight-win streak followed before a competitive ten-round defeat to then-unbeaten Gary Antonio Russell in November 2021. Santiago has since won three in a row, the notable of which was a seventh-round knockout of Antonio Nieves in their October 29 rematch after having previously fought to an August 2016 split decision draw.
Donaire (42-7, 28KOs) aims to once again break his own record as the oldest fighter to win a bantamweight title.
He will be 40 years old when he enters the ring. A win by the Fil-Am boxing superstar and former four-division titlist—who is now based out of Las Vegas—would set another record which he already shares, by entering his fourth bantamweight title reign. He first won the WBC and WBO bantamweight titles in a rousing second-round knockout of Fernando Montiel. The win saw Donaire—who was just 29 at the time—become a two-division champ, having held the IBF flyweight championship and a secondary version of the WBA junior bantamweight title. He since claimed the lineal, IBF and WBO junior bantamweight champion in a run that saw Donaire earn 2012 Fighter of the Year accolades, followed by a brief stay as WBA featherweight titlist in 2014 after ending his 122-pound championship reign in an April 2013 loss to Guillermo Rigondeaux.
Donaire entered his second bantamweight title reign with a fourth-round injury stoppage of unbeaten WBA titlist Ryan Burnett in November 2018, just 13 days shy of his 36th birthday to establish a divisional record. The reign lasted just over a year before losing a twelve-round decision to Inoue in their November 2019 WBA/IBF unification bout and World Boxing Super Series final. He resurfaced 18 months later to break his own record as the oldest fighter to win a bantamweight title following a May 2021 fourth-round knockout of unbeaten Nordine Oubaali at 38 years old.
The reign once again ended in a loss to Inoue, suffering a second-round knockout in their rematch last June 7 in Saitama, Japan. Donaire has not fought since then, waiting out the sordid bantamweight title picture.
Interestingly, the fight lands on a date previously eyed for another vacant bantamweight title fight. Emmanuel Rodriguez and Melvin Lopez were previously informed of a July 15 clash for the IBF title, though the promise was made when it was still believed that it would be part of the Errol Spence-Terence Crawford Showtime Pay-Per-View event on that night. Donaire-Santiago and Rodriguez-Lopez will fill the remaining two bantamweight title vacancies.
By Jake Donovan