Donaire to defend WBA title against knockout artist in October

The Filipino Flash will be back in the ring soon.

Nonito Donaire (33-2-0, 21 knockouts) will defend his WBA featherweight title against the power-punching Nicholas Walters (24-0-0, 20 KOs) of Jamaica on October 18 at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.

Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions announced the fight in an interview with Ring Magazine’s Lem Satterfield.

Even if Donaire and Walters are both under Top Rank Promotions, they were tabbed to be in the undercard of the WBA middleweight title fight between Gennady Golovkin and Marco Antonio Rubio.

“We wanted to make the best fight possible for this show even if it didn’t involve our fighters,” Loeffler told Satterfield.

Donaire and Walters both fought in Top Rank’s Macau fight card last May. In the card, Donaire went through a bloody war against Simpiwe Vetyeka of South Africa. Donaire endured multiple headbutts but he was able to score a knockdown and win via technical decision after the bout was stopped in the fifth round.

The Filipino Flash had to take time out of the ring to let his cut heal and five months would apparently be enough rest for him.

Walters on the other hand also won in the fifth round but he did so in a dominant fashion.

The undefeated Jamaican made easy work of former Donaire opponent Vic Darchinyan. Walters knocked down the Armenian thrice in the match en route to the fifth round knockout.

The 5-foot-7 Walters is not that much taller Donaire. However, he has incredibly long arms. The Jamaican’s reach was measured at 185 centimeters while Donaire’s is at 173 centimeters.

Walters has fast hands and moves well around the ring, which should make his fight against Donaire very fan-friendly.