By Ronnie Nathanielsz

Newly crowned WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire battles WBA champion Anselmo “Chemito” Moreno on May 28.

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum  told the Inquirer  in Las Vegas that the unification title fight will probably be held at the Oakland Coliseum in California where Donaire has a number of fans.

Moreno who has a record of 30-1 with 10 knockouts was earlier quoted by boxingscene.com in which he said “the fight sounds good to me. I think it will be a great fight but Donaire is going to fall short because its one thing to fight Fernando Montiel and another thing to fight ‘Chemito’ Moreno.”

The Panamanian world champion added “if I get to fight him (Donaire) the whole world will know ‘Chemito’ Moreno. We’ll see if Nonito Donaire is capable of hitting a ghost” indicating that  he’s been working on speed and quick movements.

Boxingscene.com reported that  Moreno watched Donaire knock out Montiel to capture the Mexican’s two titles and was impressed but that there was no fear from the fighter referred to as “the pride of Panama.”

Donaire laughed off Moreno’s claims about Montiel and stressed that the Mexican was a far tougher opponent than the Panamanian who he said had “no pop in his punches.”

Donaire who is scheduled to return home to the Philippines on Monday conceded that the southpaw style of Moreno “can be complicated” but said he is “too quick, too strong and too smart “ for the WBA champion, adding Moreno had “no chance” of beating him.

The 25 year old Moreno won the WBA title  with a twelve round unanimous decision over Wladimir Sidorenko on May 31, 2008, the same fighter that Donaire annihilated in four rounds after dropping him three times to win the WBC Continental Americas title last December 4.

Moreno also successfully defended his title against Filipino journeyman Rolly Matsushita Lunas but took twelve rounds to win. He also won a 7th round technical decision over Cecilio Santos on September 18, 2008 before scoring back-to-back split decision wins over Venezuela’s Nehomar Cermeno on March 27 and August 14, 2010.        

Santos was knocked out in the 4th round by Filipino AJ “Bazooka” Banal on January 14 last year.