Quigg vs. Donaire not happening

By Boxing News - 09/18/2015 - Comments

donaure52By Allan Fox: Former four division world champion Nonito Donaire and WBA “regular super bantamweight champion Scott Quigg won’t be fighting after all. Donaire’s wife says that Quigg and his promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport haven’t signed the contract for the fight. She doesn’t understand why they failed to sign. It’s unclear what direction Donaire will go in next. He’s one of the top super bantamweights in the division.

He might be better off going for the WBC belt. Donaire was already beaten by WBA/WBO super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux in 2013, and he appears to have Donaire’s number. There’s no point in Donaire fighting him again unless he’s feeling brave and willing to potentially get beaten again.

“It looks like there’s no fight,” said Rachel Donaire said to RingTV.com. “These guys, they say they want a big fight. Then it comes time to sign and they balk.”

Donaire is with Top Rank and they’ll have to see what direction they want to take him in. Donaire was the Fighter of the Year in 2012, when he was being matched carefully by Top Rank. Things have gone downhill for Donaire since then with him losing to Rigondeaux and Nicholas Walters. There’s a lot of boxing fans who see the 32-year-old Donaire as a shot fighter now.

Anthony Joshua vs. Dillian Whyte grudge match set for December 12th

After six years of living with a defeat that he suffered at the hands of Dillian Whyte (16-0, 13 KOs) in the amateur ranks in 2009, unbeaten heavyweight contender Anthony Joshua (14-0, 14 KOs) will finally get a chance to avenge his defeat against Whyte on December 12th at the O2 Arena in London, England.

Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has signed contracts for the fight and he’s really excited about this match-up. Hearn sees greatness in Joshua but he needs to jump over this hurdle in Whyte so that he can realize that potential.

Whyte hasn’t had the same backing that Joshua has with him being signed with Matchroom Sport, but he’s still a very promising heavyweight as well. Whyte will go far even loses this fight. He matches up well with most if not all of the top heavyweights in the division.

Whyte defeated Brian Minto last Saturday night in a third round knockout at the O2 Arena. Joshua fought on the same card and stopped Gary Cornish in the 1st round to setup the Joshua-Whyte fight for December 12th. Whyte said after the fight that he was unable to use his left arm due to a shoulder injury. He says he’ll fight with the injury if he has to in December.

The tickets for the Joshua-Whyte fight sold out in six hours after going on sale on Wednesday afternoon. Hearn was very pleased at seeing the tickets sold so quickly. It shows how much fan interest there is in this fight. It’s the first real test of Joshua’s two-year pro career. He won the gold medal in the 2012 Olympics for Britain, and now he wants to duplicate that success at the pro level.

None of Joshua’s previous 14 opponents has made it past the 3rd round against him. The constant early knockout victories have Joshua very confident to the point where he expects to KO Whyte, as well as EBU heavyweight champion Erkan Teper. He expects those fighters to fold up as quickly as his over-matched other opponents.

What Joshua doesn’t seem to realize is that Teper and Whyte represent a huge leap up in competition from the fighters that Hearn has been matching him against. If Joshua isn’t mature enough to realize that yet then he could be in for a great deal of trouble on December 12th and finds out quickly that Whyte isn’t a pushover like the first fourteen opponents that Hearn found for him.

“The amateur win is relevant, so relevant. He is 1-0 against me, and now it is my chance to get it back and even the score,” said Joshua. “This is the beautiful thing about boxing: We have so many weeks now to get strong, get fit and get our mind in the right place, and we will be back here at the O2 to dust up again in front of all of the wonderful fans that showed up on Saturday.”



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