Arce: Why did Donaire fight Vazquez Jr. instead of me?

By Boxing News - 02/27/2012 - Comments

Image: Arce: Why did Donaire fight Vazquez Jr. instead of me?By Dan Ambrose: Four time world champion and current WBO bantamweight champ Jorge Arce (60-6-2, 46 KO’s) doesn’t understand even for a moment why Nonito Donaire (28-1, 18 KO’s) fought his leftover opponent Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. earlier this month in winning a difficult 12 round split decision. Arce already did a job on Vazquez Jr. last May, knocking him out in the 12th round and giving him a real beating.

Instead of facing Arce in a fight that made all the sense in the world, Donaire took on the already beaten Vazquez Jr. and looked bad in winning the vacant WBO super bantamweight title.

Speaking with boxingsocialist.com, Arce said “I know I can beat him [Donaire]. I will prove to him. He has never fought a fighter like me. He is not a monster. I can beat him. I don’t know why they fought Vazquez when I beat Vazquez. They should have fought me; they knew I wanted this fight. I don’t know if it’s him or his people, but someone is afraid me fighting Donaire.”

I don’t think it was Donaire’s choice to fight Vazquez Jr., as his promoter Bob Arum is generally the one that does the selection of opponents for his fighters. It’s pretty obvious that Vazquez Jr. was seen as a little money fight, a safe fight for Donaire and his promotional team to get a win over a recognizable name.

It was also a test to see how Donaire would do by moving up and facing a guy that has good skills, but who took a lot of punishment in losing to Arce. Arum wasn’t going to throw Donaire straight in with an experienced Arce after how badly Donaire looked against 36-year-old experienced veteran Omar Narvaez last October. Donaire looked too bad in that fight and they weren’t going to put him in with someone they better like Arce.

Arce will be fighting on the June 9th undercard of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. After that fight, he’ll be ready to take on Donaire.



Comments are closed.