Former four-division champion Nonito Donaire is seemingly still eyeing Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez as a potential foe. Yet his wife, Rachel Donaire – Nonito’s trainer and manager – has made clear the difficulties in making the fight so far.

Nonito attended the WBC’s Women’s Summit in Las Vegas earlier this month in support of Rachel, who gave a presentation at the event about the business of boxing.

“The one option I keep going back to is ‘Chocolatito,’” Rachel told BoxingScene when discussing what may come next for Nonito. “We had put forward a couple of times to fight Chocolatito, and [Akihiko] Honda [of Teiken Boxing] had given his blessing a couple of times. But then, for some reason, his management decided that he wanted to go after Cafu, and look how that turned out.”

Phumelele Cafu, the WBO junior bantamweight titleholder, had been linked to Gonzalez as a potential opponent but is now rumored to be in line for WBC junior bantamweight titleholder Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez. Donaire, 42-8 (28 KOs), last fought in July 2023, losing a unanimous decision to Alexandro Santiago. The bout was contested for a vacant WBC bantamweight title.

Donaire, 42, a Filipino fighter who resides in Las Vegas, has discussed a fight with Naoya Inoue and admits that his main goal is “to get into the ring,” but he appears to still have an interest in a Chocolatito fight.

“We waited last July until he came into the 118lbs division,” Rachel said of Gonzalez. “That's what they asked – to wait until he sees how he feels in 118lbs, and then they said yes after that. Now we're in freaking April.”

A multi-division titleholder who helped fight for equality for lower-weight fighters not often seen on television, Gonzalez, 52-4 (42 KOs), had a historic run on HBO. He returned in July to stop Rober Barrera, marking his first fight at bantamweight and first bout at any weight since his December 2022 loss to Juan Francisco Estrada. Gonzalez, a 37-year-old multi-division titleholder from Managua, Nicaragua, hasn’t fought since.

“I think Chocolatito's pissed off that Cafu decided not to fight him,” Rachel said. “It almost felt like karma to me because they made us wait. Then Cafu turned him down. Now, we're both stuck without a fight, but that's neither here nor there. I just think that both of them are of advancing age. Both of them are going to be in the Hall of Fame. I think that it'd be a legendary fight.”

Lucas Ketelle is the author of “Inside the Ropes of Boxing,” a guide for young fighters, a writer for BoxingScene and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Find him on X at @BigDogLukie.