By Chris Williams: Instead of looking to put his fighter IBF/WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (30-1, 19 KO’s) in with WBC 122 lb champion Abner Mares of WBA champion Guillermo Rigondeaux, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum instead wants to put Donaire in with another aging fighter in Jorge Arce (61-6-2, 46 KO’s) and Arum wants to make this fight in December if Donaire’s injured left hand is okay by then. Donaire fought 36-year-old Toshiaki Nishioka last night in a painful to watch fight because of how boring it was.

Arum said to Dan Rafael of ESPN “If the hand is OK, I will try to have him fight before the end of the year in Mexico City at the new arena against Arce.”

Arum is obviously thinking of the better money for an Arce-Donaire fight plus a much lesser risk for Donaire, because Mares and Rigondeaux are clearly much better fighters than Arce at this point in Arce’s career and they’re a lot more dangerous for Donaire. This is what you call safe matchmaking 101. Donaire would be at high risk against either Mares or Rigondeaux because they’re not old, and they’re someone that is just going to come and fight defensively like Donaire’s opponent Toshiaki Nishioki did last night in losing by a 9th round TKO to Donaire at the Home Depot Center, in Carson, California.

I don’t think an Arce vs. Donaire fight would be even competitive in the slightest, and that would be sad if HBO says yes to televising this fight. Boxing fans just had to sit through nine rounds of non-action with the Donaire-Nishioki fight last Saturday with boxing fans booing almost nonstop the lack of action. Arum made the huge mistake of thinking that boxing fans actually wanted to see the Donaire vs. Nishioka fight and made it the main event with, believe it or not, the Brandon Rios vs. Mike Alvarado fight as an undercard fight. Unbelievable.

I couldn’t think of a dumber thing to do if I tried. No one cared that Donaire was defending his IBF and WBO super bantamweight straps. All fans cared about was that Nishioka, a guy that few of them had ever seen or heard of before, only fought sparingly in one of the most boring fights on HBO ever. That’s Arum’s baby in putting this fight together, and it’s sad that HBO said yes to it. Anyone with eyes could see that Nishioka was looking like a shot fighter in his last bout against the way past his best Rafael Marquez last October. HBO should have said no to this mismatch and told Top Rank to have Donaire fight someone that is still fighting on a high level.

Arce looked terrible earlier this year in what appeared to be a quit job agaisnt Jesus Rojas in a 2nd round no contest after Arce fell down and grabbed his ear after getting hit with a low blow, a shot to the back and then a cuffing right hand from Rojas. Arce couldn’t continue fighting. But the timing of this came right when Arce was getting pounded by the younger 25-year-old Rojas, and it just looked like Arce wanted a way out of a fight that looked like it going in the wrong direction for Arce. If anything, Arce should fight Rojas again instead of getting picked by Arum to fight Donaire.

An Arce vs. Donaire would be just a money fight and not something that you would expect to be competitive. Unless I miss my guess, we’ll see Donaire giving excuses for why he’s fighting Arce instead of Mares or Rigondeaux, saying he thinks that Arce is the best fighter at super bantamweight, which is what Donaire was saying about Nishioka for weeks despite the fact that he looked more like a faded fighter looking for one last fight.