By Eric Thomas: WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (30-1, 19 KOs) made weight for his title defense against former three division world champion Jore Arce (61-6-2, 46 KO’s) for their fight on HBO on Saturday night at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. Donaire weighed in at 121.5 pounds, and Arce, 33, had to strip down nude to get down to 122 lbs to make weight.
The card won’t have much else other than this fight in terms of quality fights that the boxing public really cares about.

The undercard co-main event fight that was scheduled between Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym and Guillermo Rigondeaux was scratched from the card yesterday after Poonsawat failed three blood tests.

Arce thinks he can KO Donaire, and he’s using the same strength and conditioning coach Angel Heredia as Mexican great Juan Manuel Marquez used to build up his body for his knockout win over Manny Pacquiao last Saturday night. Arce does look more muscular than he normally is, but that still likely won’t be enough for him to win this fight because Donaire is so much bigger, faster and stronger than Arce.

Donaire has a big three inch height advantage and he also has a long reach advantage as well. Unless Arce’s power has been improved in a dramatic way he’s going to be at a big disadvantage against Donaire. Perhaps Arce’s only chance of winning this fight is if he can get in close, and look to work Donaire over on the inside.

Donaire isn’t much of an inside fighter, and that’s one area where Arce will have an advantage. However, Arce will still have to take a lot of punishment in order to win because he’s going to be getting hit an awful lot by some monster shots from Donaire.

The Houston crowd will likely be in Arce’ s favor by a huge margin on Saturday, as a lot of Mexican fans are expected to show up for the fight.