Nonito Donaire to face Ruben Garcia Hernandez on September 23rd

Donaire lost his WBO title to Jessie Magdaleno in his last fight

September 23rd’s World Boxing Super Series showdown between Yunier Dorticos and Dmitry Kudryashov now has its supporting cast. In addition to a reserve match between (technically) once-beaten cruiserweights Lateef Kayode and Keith Tapia, the card is set to feature the return of Nonito Donaire after nearly eleven months away.

Donaire (37-4, 24 KO) has not fought since losing his WBO super bantamweight title to Jessie Magdaleno last year in a quality slugfest. He faces a much lesser challenge in the form of Ruben Garcia Hernandez (22-2-1, 9 KO), whose only noteworthy career achievement is that he fights a lot.

I’m not exaggerating. Since getting blown out by Randy Caballero last year, Hernandez has fought opponents with the following records:

0-3
2-37
6-5
8-7-1
0-9
0-3
1-5-1

Even with Donaire’s decline, this is a shameful mismatch.

The cruiserweight fight is a little better. Lateef “I FUCK HE UP” Kayode (21-1, 16 KO), who’s had two of his last six opponents busted for steroids, hasn’t fought since a knockout loss to Denis Lebedev in November of 2015. Tapia (17-1, 11 KO) will be ending a sixteenth-month layoff of his own, dating back to a decision loss to Andrew Tabiti.

I mean, at least only one of them is criminal. The other’s just meh.