Arum needs to be careful about matching Donaire against Rigondeaux again

By Boxing News - 04/14/2013 - Comments

donaire663By Eric Thomas: After the way that WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (31-2, 20 KO’s) was beaten tonight by WBA super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (12-0, 8 KO’s) in New York, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is going to need to need to think clearly about whether he wants to match Donaire back up with Rigondeaux again so that he can try and avenge his loss.

Rigondeaux beat Donaire by a 12 round unanimous decision tonight by the scores of 114-113, 115-112 and 116-111. I think it’s safe to say that the boxing public saw the fight closer to the 116-111 score.

There are a few oddballs that had the fight scored closely and even a rare fan that thought Donaire was robbed and should have won the fight. Like I said, most people saw the fight as not being a close fight and that belief is echoed in every internet forum I’ve seen tonight. Majority of boxing fans saw it as a one-sided fight and the minority had it a close fight.

Arum wants to make Donaire a pay per view star like Manny Pacquiao, and tonight his dreams took a big hit with Donaire’s loss to Rigondeaux. Some of Donaire’s fans see him as the next Pacquiao. If Arum doesn’t want Donaire to be humbled a second time, he’s going to move him in a direction away from Rigondeaux.

The way that Donaire was talking after the fight, it seemed like he wasn’t all that eager himself to fight Rigondeaux again. I think Arum won’t have a tough job in trying to convince Donaire to not fight Rigondeaux again because I think Donaire is going to want to get a title from someone so that he can resume getting nice paydays like tonight’s where he made $1.32 million compared to the $750,000 for Rigondeaux.

Unless Rigondeaux can get a rematch with Donaire then his options aren’t all that good. He can fight 38-year-old Vic Darchinyan, Carl Frampton, Scott Quigg, Christian Mijares, Victor Terrazaz or Wilfredo Vazquez Jr., but none of those fights are what you could consider a big fight.

Rigondeaux might have to move up to featherweight to try and fight Mikey Garcia if he wants to get a big fight because he just fought the only big named opponent in the super bantamweight division tonight.



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