By Dan Ambrose: WBA World super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (11-0, 8 KO’s) has reportedly extended his contract with Top Rank, which had previously run out recently. According to RingTV, the 32-year-old Rigondeaux has signed a multi-fight deal with Top Rank. It’s unclear how long the contract is or if it’s just for three fights.

Golden Boy Promotions supposedly offered a bigger deal with for Rigondeaux in terms of money, but for some reason Rigondeaux opted to stay with Top Rank. It’s likely that he resigned because of the potential to get a big money fight against IBF/WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire, who is easily the biggest money maker in the super bantamweight division.

Rigondeaux has been counting on getting a unification match with Donaire, and it should have already happened because both fighters are with Top Rank. However, Donaire is saying that Rigondeaux priced himself out recently when they explored facing him.

Some boxing fans think that Top Rank president Bob Arum doesn’t match Donaire with Rigondeaux because Donaire is a good little money maker and has potential to make even more money in the future, whereas Rigondeaux doesn’t have a huge fan base and he might not ever become a big money guy despite possibly being the best fighter in the division right now.

Who knows what the real truth is, but I can see how it would be in Arum’s best interest not to put Donaire in with Rigondeaux due to the danger there would be for Donaire. A bad loss for Donaire would mess things up for Arum in trying to turn him into the next Manny Pacquiao. The way that Pacquiao became a big star in winning titles in multiple divisions was through careful matchmaking with him taking on not necessarily the best fighter in each division before quickly being moved up. And later when Pacquiao got to welterweight and light middleweight, catchweights were used to help the process along. Arum could be looking to do this with Donaire, which is why we might not ever see him fight Rigondeaux.

Rigondeaux is coming off of a 12 round unanimous decision over Robert Marroquin last month on the September 15th Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Sergio Martinez fight card. Marroquin is one of Arum’s Top Rank stable fighters, and is huge for super bantamweight. Marroquin hurt Rigondeaux a couple of times in the fight with big left hooks. However, Marroquin looked like light welterweight instead of a super bantamweight in that fight, and it would be interesting to know much Marroquin weighed after rehydrating.

Rigondeaux could be back in action on December 8th or December 15h. He has a chance to being put on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez undercard on December 8th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. It’s either that or fight on the 8th of December in a fight card that will receive a lot less visibility.