Fans poll results: Rigondeaux chosen as #1 choice to fight Donaire next

By Boxing News - 07/09/2012 - Comments

Image: Fans poll results: Rigondeaux chosen as #1 choice to fight Donaire nextBy Chris Williams: Based on a poll conducted at RingTV asking which fighter boxing fans want to see face IBF/WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire next, WBA World super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux was selected by the fans as the #1 guy they want Donaire to fight next.

8000 fans participated in the poll with 37.5% selecting the unbeaten Rigondeaux over #2 Abner Mares at 30.1% of the votes, Toshiaki Nishikoa at 17.6%, Jorge Arce 12.1% and Anselmo Moreno at 2.6% of the votes.

Here are are the poll results from the RingTV poll:

* Guillermo Rigondeux 37.5 percent
* Abner Mares 30.1 percent
* Toshiaki Nishioka 17.6 percent
* Jorge Arce 12.1 percent
* Anselmo Moreno 2.6 percent

What’s really sad here is that Donaire is being mentioned as likely facing 32-year-old Jorge Arce next, and as the poll results showed you, boxing fans don’t want to see Donaire face Arce and I can’t blame them. Arce looked horrid in his last fight against Jesus M Rojas last month, and almost appeared to quit when he started taking punishment in the 2nd round. Officially the fight was called a no contest because Arce was hit low and with a shot to the side, as well as a punch that landed on Arce’s ear, which I felt was a good shot. But Arce couldn’t get up and continue fighting.

If you ignore that awful performance from Arce, he’s still not someone that boxing fans want to see face Donaire. A big part of the problem is that Arce was easily beaten by Vic Darchinyan three years ago. For boxing fans who may not remember, Darchinyan was blown out by Donaire five years ago in a 5th round stoppage. So if Arce can’t beat Darchinya, well then of course he’s not going to be competitive with a much bigger fighter in Donaire.

This fight seems like another soft fight for Donaire instead of having him really tested by facing Rigondeaux or Mares. Like I said earlier, I wouldn’t mind if Donaire milked his traps against Arce and Toshiaki Nishioka, if Donaire would then face Mares and Rigondeaux, but Donaire said last Saturday night that he’s going to go after one more belt at super bantamweight, likely against Nishioka, and would then move up in weight to the featherweight division. So, Donaire won’t likely face two of the super bantamweight champions, and it looks like Rigondeaux and Mares are the guys that he won’t be fighting.



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