The Bantamweight division doesn't just have some excellent champions but also some fantastic contenders making it one of the most interesting and deep divisions in the sport. The WBSS, which has been a thorn in the side of some divisions, has helped give time to the contenders at Bantamweight and we now have a multitude of fighters chomping at the bit for a big fight.
 
Nonito Donaire (40-6, 26)
A man who has got himself a title fight, at some point in 2020, is Filipino veteran Nonito Donaire, who was named as the WBC mandatory challenger. The 37 year old "Filipino Flash" exceeded all expectations in giving Naoya Inoue a tough bout in the WBSS final and we wouldn't be surprised if that wasn't a 1-off performance for Donaire who has looked better at Bantamweight than he ever looked at Super Bantamweight. The veteran has taken good care of his body, still has a dynamite left hook, a real iron chin and masses of experience. Despite his age he's someone who could well have 1 more run at the top.
 
Michael Dasmarinas (30-2-1, 20)
IBF mandatory challenger Michael Dasmarinas is set to get a shot later this year, though it's unclear when, and could end up having a massive 2020, win or lose in his eventual title fight. The talented Filipino has shown flaws in recent bouts, and was lucky against Manyo Plange in 2018, but is certainly a handful when he's on form. Like many Filipino fighters there seems to be two Dasmarinas's. There's the one who schooled the likes of Hayato Kimura and Jhaleel Payao, and lost a competitive one in South Africa to Lwandile Sityatha. Then there's the one who needed judges to help him get a draw with Plange and needed a thunderbolt from the blue to take out Karim Guerfi. 
 
Zolani Tete (28-4, 21)
The future is very unclear for former WBO champion Zolani Tete. The 31 year old South African hasn't looked great in recent performances, even before being stopped by John Riel Casimero, and it's unclear what has happened to the skilled southpaw boxer-puncher. With his 5'9" frame we wouldn't be surprised by a move up in weight, which would likely be his best option right now. His loss to Casimero was seen as a major upset, but his performances going in, and the injury that forced him out of the WBSS, may suggest that he's close to being a spent force.
 
Guillermo Rigondeaux (19-1, 13)
It's hard to know quite what the 39 year old Rigondeaux has in the locker. The talented, yet horrifically frustrating, Cuban should have done so much more with his career. Sadly however he was his own worst enemy. He looked chinny, but talented through much of his early career, impressively beat Nonito Donaire, then began to stink out the joint, fight after fight. His unexciting performances saw him being castigated by Bob Arum and American TV but then he failed to really ever manage to work with anyone. A relationship with Gary Hyde, that could have lead to a nice run in Asia, was ended in acrimonious fashion and Rigondeaux toiled until losing to Vasily Lomachenko in 2017. Two wins later Rigondeaux finds himself at the door of the "Last Chance Saloon" and will get a WBA "regular" title fight on February 8th. A fight he must win to remain relevant.
 
Liborio Solis (30-5-1-1, 14)
Rugged and under-rated Venezuelan fighter Liborio Solis is very much the leader of the "who needs him?" Club. The former WBA Super Flyweight champion is a proper veteran, at the age of 37, and has given fits to the likes of Shinsuke Yamanaka and Jamie McDonnell, being robbed against McDonnell in their first fight in 2017. Sadly we've not seen much if Solis recent and it's unclear what he has in the tank. If he's half the fighter he once was he gives Rigondeaux hell in February, though there's a genuine chance that father time, and a punishing career may have taken the best out of the Solis.
 
Emmanuel Rodriguez (19-1, 12)
Once beaten former world champion Emmanuel Rodriguez made the mistake of angering "The Monster" ahead of their WBSS semi-final in 2019, losing by stoppage in round 2 to Inoue in Scotland. Prior to that Rodriguez had been on a good run including wins over Jason Moloney, more about him in a moment, Paul Butler and Alberto Guevara. The talented Puerto Rican was set for a world title eliminator in late 2019 against Luis Nery, but the Mexican failed to make weight, and the WBC used their infinite wisdom to not give Rodriguez a shot, instead nominating Donaire. Even with the oversight by the WBC we still expect to see Rodriguez in the mix later in the year.
 
Jason Moloney (20-1, 17)
Australian boxer-puncher Jason Moloney is a 29 year old who actually impressed us more in his sole loss than his 20 wins. Moloeny's loss came in the WBSS to Emmanuel Rodriguez, in an IBF world title fight, by split decision and we're looking forward to seeing Moloney getting a second shot at a world title. He's already beaten former world champions Immanuel Naidjala and Kohei Kono and looks to be one of the division's best kept secrets. With 3 wins under his belt since the Rodriguez loss we're looking forward to a fruitful 2020 for the 29 year old. 
 
Joshua Greer Jr (22-1-1, 12)
Once beaten American fighter Joshua Greer Jr built himself a nice little gimmick in the last couple of years, bringing a pillow to the ring for opponents, before knocking them out. He stepped up in class last year and found out that opponents at a higher level weren't that easy to take down, and he ended up really struggling with Nikolai Potapov and Antonio Nieves, both of whom could have the decision go their way against Greer. With lady luck shining on him in 2019 he's now on the verge of a world title fight. Sadly for him pillows are unlikely to help when he goes in with a world class opponent, and we genuinely see the 25 year old being stepped when he does face a top 10 type fighter. Still, it'll be fun to see!
 
Takuma Inoue (13-1, 3)
Former WBC "interim" champion Takuma Inoue, the younger brother of Naoya Inoue, suffered his first loss last year as he came up short to Nordine Oubaali. Despite the loss Inoue showed he belonged in and around world level, despite the appalling scorecard of Alejandro Rochin. We suspect Inoue will come again, though it could be 2021 before he gets another chance. The one thing missing from Inoue is power, it appears his brother has taken the family's share, despite that he's skilled, talented and did hurt Oubaali late. Don't write off Inoue despite the loss last year.
 
Reymart Gaballo (23-0, 20)
One of the lesser seen faces in the division is 23 year old Filipino puncher Reymart Gaballo. The "Assassin" is one of the best kept secrets in world boxing right now and combines frightening power, speed and aggression with a real flair for entertainment. He's raw around the edges, he's got a lot of work to do to tidy up, but the natural tools to be a threat to anyone in the weight class. Despite being relatively unknown outside of the Philippines Gaballo has actually got international experience, scoring 4 wins in North America including a victory over Stephon Young, and looks to be on the verge of a really big year. He is one to get very excited about as we begin 2020.
 
3 bouts we want in 2020:
Naoya Inoue Vs John Riel Casimero
Nonito Donaire Vs Joshua Greer Jr
Michael Dasmarinas Vs Jason Moloney

This past Saturday fans saw the popular Nonito Donaire (33-2, 21) claim the WBA Featherweight "super" title with a technical decision victory over the tricky South African Simpiwe Vetyeka (26-3, 16). The victory saw Donaire claiming a divisional "world title" in his 5th division and saw him becoming one of the few men to successfully move through so may divisions bridging from Flyweight to Featherweight.

Whilst the victory appears to be an excellent one on paper, beating the guy who stopped Daud Cino Yordan and retired Chris John, it's one that has left many questioning the referee, Luis Pabon and the legitimacy of the result. I'm not saying Donaire didn't deserve the victory, far from it in fact I feel that if the bout continued Donaire would have stopped Vetyeka, but the ending certainly left a nasty taste in the mouths of many including myself.

Rather than focus on the past I would like to take this opportunity to instead towards the future and try to see what Nonito Donaire's next step is, where his options lie and what would be the right move for the "Filipino Flash".

The rematch
The obvious move, and one that does seem plausible given poor ending to his last fight, is a rematch with Vetyeka. Donaire himself hinted at that being something he wanted in the ring after the bout, it's a bout that makes sense and gives the chance for the Filipino to remove the bad taste that we have lingering on our tongues and down our throats.

It's a bout that makes sense to everyone. Donaire, as mentioned, gets to put the bout beyond doubt, Vetyeka gets a chance to avenge the loss, fans get to see the bout come to a natural conclusion and promoter Bob Arum gets to have a rematch of a fight that almost everyone wants to see again. The only man who loses face is Luis Pabon but in all honesty the damage to his reputation is already done and he'll certainly not be getting an invite back to Macau for a major fight any time soon.

Whilst this bout appears to make sense there is always some issues in boxing. This time around those issues could be the WBA who may want to force Donaire to fight someone else, after all they haven't had a Featherweight mandatory title fight since, er...anyone? You just know that after a while without a mandatory someone will be given one just to screw up a bout that makes sense.

There is also an issue regarding purses with Donaire possibly not getting the biggest payday to fight Vetyeka, especially compared with a number of fighters stateside who can draw more money than the hard to market South African.

The WBA
Having mentioned the WBA briefly above it makes sense to perhaps second guess them and assume they'd want to see Donaire fight their "regular" champion Nicholas Walters (24-0, 20).

Walters, who stopped Vic Darchinyan on the same Macau show that Donaire beat Vetyeka on, is a big puncher though one with little in terms of hype and marketing. Hailing from Jamaica he's not got much of a loyal fan base and doesn't bring in big purses, despite his fun to watch KO's.

If the WBA want to force Donaire to fight Walters it makes sense for them, as they get a nice chunk of the purse and effectively "free up" a title, ergo have a revenue stream that may produce more money than Walters. It's also a bout that the WBA will feel is an easy sell to the promoter of both men, Bob Arum. Arum loves in house fights and this one which would easy to make from his side.

The purse wouldn't be great for Donaire and the bout certainly has danger written on it due to Walters's size and power but if the WBA order it then it could be a difficult one to avoid, especially given that they have the same promoter. 

Unification
If the WBA is willing to leave Donaire alone then we have several other options that could bring in a lot of attention and possibly even go to pay per view in the US. Pay per view would mean a nice tasty purse for Donaire and a bigger payday for his promoter Bob Arum.

Possibly the most logical unification bout would see Donaire fighting against IBF champion Evgeny Gradovich (19-0, 9), another of Arum's Featherweights who featured on the recent Macau card. The bout would have a lot of sub stories and not just be a basic unification bout. Both men have been trained by Robert Garcia, though there is speculation that Garcia has had little involvement in Donaire's recent training camps and this could either be used as an excuse not to make the bout or as a story used to sell the bout.

If a bout with Gradovich can't be made due to Robert Garcia's relationship with both fighters then the next logical unification bout would be with the monstrously hard hitting Mexican Jhonny Gonzalez (56-8, 47), the current WBC champion. This is the sort of bout that everyone in boxing would be interested in as it pits two solid punchers against each other, both of whom can box and both of which are highly regarded in their division. This would be more than just a typical unification bout, this would be more like the #1 and #2 guys in the division meeting and that doesn't happen very often.

A third option would be a unification bout with the WBO champion. At the moment there is no WBO title holder though on June 21st Vasyl Lomachenko (1-1, 1) will be fighting Gary Russell Jr (24-0, 14) for the vacant belt. Lomachenko is yet another Arum fighter which would make that fight easy to make if the Ukrainian beats the currently unbeaten American. If Russell Jr wins that bout then Arum may pull out the stops to force a unification bout with the purpose of "getting revenge" over Russell Jr and their team with them having out bid Arum for the promotional rights for that fight.

Any of those 4 match ups would be great to see, they'd make sense in the US, they'd help clear up the division, and could all possibly pass for PPV. They'd likely offer bigger pay days than bouts with Vetyeka or Walters and, on the whole, they'd be easy to make.

Abner Mares
If Donaire is the biggest name at 126lbs right now then the nearest "rival" is Abner Mares (26-1-1, 14) who appears to have had his path to a Donaire fight opened up by the recently separation of Golden Boy Promotion and their former CEO Richard Schaefer. Schaefer had refused to work with Top Rank, Donaire's promoter, though with Schaefer now gone we could end up seeing Top Rank Vs Golden Boy fighters on a regular basis.

With that in mind what better fight could be made than this one between the two biggest draws in the division?

It's a bout that has been mooted for a while though was always trapped in the political minefield of American boxing. Offers had been made back and forth but a deal was never likely to be made. Now however with the door open this bout could be the biggest Featherweight clash in years. It's just a shame that since the bout was first mooted both men have lost. Donaire was of course out pointed by Cuban slickster Guillermo Rigondeaux whilst Mares was stopped, in a round, by Jhonny Gonzalez, despite those losses it's still a bout almost everyone wants to see and it's the perfect way for Golden Boy and Top Rank to begin what could be a fruitful relationship.

Of course these aren't Donaire's only options but to me they are the ones that make the most sense and seem the most likely. They aren't guaranteed to happen but they do illustrate the fact he has a lot of options out there and, which ever choice he makes, will be a great choice that many fans will likely whilst a small minority will question. He's one of the very few fighters in boxing who has so many options that he really can take his pick based on what he wants rather than what the promoters want, a very powerful position for a fighter to be in right now.

(images courtesy of:
Top Rank -Donaire, Gradovich, Lomachenko and Walters
Boxrec.com-Vetyeka and Mares)