Mares: Donaire turned down fight with me

By Boxing News - 01/29/2013 - Comments

mares56By Chris Williams: WBC super bantamweight champion Abner Mares (25-0, 13 KO’s) is reporting that WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (31-1, 20 KO’s) has turned down the huge $3 million offer sent by Mares’ promoters at Golden Boy for a fight.

Mares said on his twitter “Unfortunately Nonito Donaire has turned down the fight against myself. I just want to thank my promoter [Golden Boy] and my manager [Espinoza Boxing] for their attempts to try and make a fight that the fans really wanted to see.”

What’s interesting is what Donaire said about why he was turning down the contract offer, saying on his twitter that the contract by Golden Boy said nothing about gloves, date, site, rounds or liability.

Here’s the interesting part: Dan Rafael of ESPN says he has a copy of the 13-page contract sent by Golden Boy, and he says the contract DOES include pretty much all the stuff that Donaire was saying was missing from the contract.

Here’s what Rafael said on his twitter:

“It states all terms…it states the site will be ‘at a location in the United States’ (normal language). Contract will be ‘No later than June 30, 2013. Specifies everything: Gloves, ring, rooms, plane, tix, etc…based on the 13-page document I saw, this is a REAL offer for real money with copious details about the fight in it. Contract from GB [Golden Boy] to TR [Top Rank] is so detailed it includes airline tix, hotel room and food per diem specifics…order of ring walks, glove size & stuff about insurance. This isn’t a letter, it’s a bonafide contract. Maybe Nonito team didn’t show him?”

If Donaire is saying all those things are missing from the contract that Golden Boy sent over then why is it that Rafael is saying all of those items are there? Did Donaire only see a part of the contract or did he just skim over what was sent over to him instead of looking over the entire 13 page contract?

It just makes you wonder what’s going on when you’re hearing different things. Did Donaire see the actual contract or does perhaps Rafael have a contract that wasn’t sent to Top Rank?



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