Nonito Donaire woke up to the good news that one of the four major sanctioning bodies responded favorably to his appeal for a top ranking.
The legendary, former four-division champ was installed as the No. 1 contender at bantamweight with the WBA during its recent ratings update on Thursday. The move came just two weeks after Donaire, 43-9-1 (28 KOs), suffered a narrow defeat to reigning titlist Seiya Tsutsumi, 13-0-1 (8 KOs) on December 17 in Tokyo, in one of the best fights of 2025.
Their grueling, 12-round thriller left Tsutsumi – the winner – with a broken nose that needed surgery. Donaire walked away relatively unscathed and eager to return to the ring – and the title picture as soon as possible. Rachel Donaire, Nonito’s wife, manager, and trainer – filed an immediate appeal with the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO in search of a top ranking and another title shot, or at least a pathway to one in the new year.
Donaire’s placement atop the WBA 118lbs division was revealed just hours after fellow former four-division titlist Kazuto Ioka, 33-4-1 (17 KOs) debuted at the division. Ioka topped his 13th career New Year’s Eve show on Wednesday, when he knocked out Venezuela’s Maikel Ordosgoitti, 15-2 (14 KOs) in the 4th round of a sanctioned WBA title eliminator.
Given the traffic jam at the weight, there was doubt that Ioka would fight for the sanctioning body’s title next. In fact, he has already instead called for a showdown with WBC titleholder Takuma Inoue, 21-2 (5 KOs). As previously reported by BoxingScene, the two will likely meet in the chief support to the planned Naoya Inoue-Junto Nakatani super fight next spring.
Meanwhile, Tsutsumi is far from out of the clear. It remains to be seen whether he can physically move forward with an already mandated title defense with Antonio Vargas.
Tsutsumi and Vargas traded places twice in 2025, without actually fighting each other. Their twice-ordered mandatory title fight first left Tsutsumi forced to vacate when pre-existing injuries never fully healed in time to meet last summer. Vargas was installed as the full titlist, while Tsutsumi was downgraded to Champion in Recess.
The two traded places before year’s end, however, when Vargas – ordered to face a fully-healed Tsutsumi – was met with personal tragedy and unable to honor his own mandatory. The Orlando-based boxer – who represented the U.S. during the 2016 Rio Olympics – was downgraded to Champion in Recess as a result, while Tsutsumi’s previous title reign was restored.
The swap was made just in time for the stakes to be raised in Tsutsumi’s already scheduled bout with Donaire, who was the WBA interim titlist at the time. Their matchup became a title consolidation fight, which left Donaire beltless with the defeat.
The 43-year-old Fil-Am star, who is based out of Las Vegas, now has a pathway to secure another crack at breaking his own record as the oldest bantamweight champion in boxing history. He already set the mark in November 2018, just nine days shy of his 36th birthday, and again at age 38 in his May 2021 knockout win over then-unbeaten WBC titlist Nordine Oubaali.
Donaire previously held the WBC bantamweight title in 2021 before he moved up in weight. He’s also served as a major titlist at flyweight, junior featherweight and featherweight.
