By Ronnie Nathanielsz

IBF/IBO flyweight champion Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire fight for the vacant super flyweight title against Puerto Rico’s Jose “Carita” Lopez is in jeopardy. The title is being relinquished by reigning champion Fernando Montiel who is having trouble making the weight and is moving up to fight as a bantamweight

WBO Asia-Pacific chairman Leon Panoncillo called insidesports.ph to inform us that he had spoken to the promoters of the Lopez title fight against No.1 ranked Pramuansak Posuwan of Thailand who assured him the fight against the Thai was on.

Panoncillo said the promoters, Puerto Rico Best Boxing headed by Ivan and Petera told him “both fighters had signed the fight contracts” and there was no backing off contrary to claims by Top Rank promoter Bob Arum that the Posuwan fight would be cancelled and Donaire would face Lopez in Manila on March 15.

Donaire who has decided to train in the Philippines and not under Freddie Roach at his world famous Wild Card Gym was joined in the summer capital of Baguio City by WBO bantamweight champion Gerry Penalosa, to begin the hard grind in preparation for their upcoming fights.

While Donaire’s fight against Lopez was in apparent jeopardy, Penalosa’s planned showdown with WBO super bantamweight sensation Juan Manuel “Juanma” Lopez  is almost done according to Penalosa’s manager Bill Keane. The fight, according to Arum, is set for April 4 in New York.

Donaire, speaking to us from Baguio where he and Penalosa were taking a rest day and “seeing what Baguio has to offer” said his manager Cameron Dunkin had called and assured him that his fight at the Araneta Coliseum on March 15 would take place and that he would fight either Lopez or Posuwan

But given the statements of the promoters of the Lopez-Posuwan title fight as well as Panoncillo, a Donaire fight against either the No.1 or No. 2 contenders is not likely to happen.

Under the scenario laid out by Arum, Montiel would move up to bantamweight and face Penalosa’s mandatory challenger Erik Morel, the former WBA flyweight champion in an interim title fight. That was one of the reasons why the January 12 purse bid for the Penalosa-Morel mandatory was postponed by the WBO.

Penalosa’s fight is also being promoted by Puerto Rico Best Boxing in cooperation with Top Rank.

Meantime, Cotabato vice governor and boxing promoter/manager Manny Pinol who is promoting a fight card in Cebu on February 21 has been burning the wires in an effort to get a suitable opponent for a tune-up fight of Penalosa. Pinol’s plan is to have Penalosa headline his card which will be telecast by the giant broadcast network ABS-CBN.

Donaire however revealed that the promoters may not wish to risk Penalosa fighting a tune-up bout because his title fight against Juanma Lopez is regarded as a big fight.

Donaire said that while Penalosa “wants the tune-up fight he is prepared to forego the fight” if it can’t happen and would concentrate on his training and getting into the best shape of his life for the Lopez title bout because it’s a tough fight although Penalosa told us he is confident of beating the hard-hitting Puerto Rican.

Juanma Lopez won the title with a spectacular first round knockout of the menacing Daniel Ponce De Leon who had previously scored a twelve round unanimous decision over Penalosa and a smashing first round KO of Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista.