By Dan Ambrose WBA World super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (9-0, 7 KO’s) badly wants to get a fight against Nonito Donaire to prove himself as one of the best fighters in boxing, but he can pretty much forget about that fight happening now or later.

Donaire has said he doesn’t want the fight and that he’s looking to fight Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. next on February 4th and then Mexican great Jorge Arce after that. Even if Donaire wanted to fight Rigondeaux after that fight, he likely would be steered away from him by his promoter Bob Arum, who wants to see Donaire face bigger stars like Juan Manuel Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa.

Rigondeux isn’t in the same league as those guys in terms of popularity and money making ability. If Arum wanted Donaire to fight Rigondeaux, it would be done but it doesn’t look like he’s interested in that fight.

Rigondeaux needs to be taking his argument to Arum if he really wants to fight Donaire because Donaire himself is merely following the path laid out to him by his Top Rank promoters, who want him to go after big names so he Donaire can get more and more money. Rigondeaux is still an unknown in the U.S. and at 31, he may age out before he reaches the super stardom big fights.

He’s a good fighter and probably the best in the super bantamweight division, even better than Donaire. But being the best doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have a large base and don’t bring in good ratings on HBO or Showtime. They’ll never let Donaire fight Rigondeaux because Donaire means money and if Rigondeaux beat him, then that money would evaporate almost immediately.

Rigondeux will have to settle for trying to get the other super bantamweight champions Takalani Ndovu and Toshiaki Nishioka to fight him. Fat chance that happens because fighters don’t like to take on southpaw opponents and they especially don’t like to fight counter punchers and Rigondeaux is both. That’s perhaps another reason why Donaire isn’t eager to fight Rigondeaux. But the main reason why Rigondeaux won’t get a fight with Donaire is because Donaire’s management have set a different course of just big fights for him.

Once Donaire gets through with his last easy fight against Arce, his career will be on shaky ground because fights against guys Gamboa, Lopez and Orlando Salido could prove to be unwinnable for him. He would then have to move back down to super bantamweight and perhaps then Rigondeaux miht have a chance to get a fight with Donaire, as he would need to fight someone like Rigoneaux to reestablish himself. I still doubt Top Rank will let Donaire fight Rigondeux even then, because they’ll look to rebuild him against beatable opposition rather than someone that could beat him.