By Jason Kim: Bob Arum, the promoter for WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (26-1, 18 KO’s), is still looking for an opponent for Donaire’s next fight after WBA bantamweight champion Anselmo Moreno reportedly turned down the invitation to fight Donaire in November. This was a fight that Donaire and Arum wanted, as it would have given Donaire a third belt at bantamweight to go along with his other two.

Now Arum has to look in another direction. Arum wants to place Donaire on the undercard of the December 3rd fight card headlined by WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito. However, Arum might not be able to find an interesting opponent by then to match against Donaire.

He doesn’t want to just match Donaire up against anyone, because Donaire has already missed out on a lot of big fights in the past four years and he needs to be matched against opponents that boxing fans actually care about. I’m not sure that fans would have given a thought to Donaire taking on Moreno, but at least it would have added the WBA belt to Donaire’s collection.

That’s something that would sound good when it’s mentioned but in reality might not have much meaning to casual boxing fans. Arum is talking about wanting to match Donaire up against the winner of the October 1st clash between WBC super bantamweight champion Toshiaki Nishioka and Rafael Marquez for a fight that would be taking place in early 2012. However, that’s a fight for the future. Donaire can’t afford to be hanging around waiting another six to eight months for that fight to happen. He needs an opponent now.