Donaire-Arce: A bad mismatch

By Boxing News - 11/21/2012 - Comments

Image: Donaire-Arce: A bad mismatchBy Chris Williams: 5’4″ Jorge Arce (61-6-2, 46 KO’s) is badly out of his element in facing WBO and WBC Diamond super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (30-1, 19 KO’s) on December 15th at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. Donaire is surprisingly holding onto the 122 lb WBC Diamond strap that he captured in his last fight against 36-year-old Toshiaki Nishioka last October in a sick mismatch.

I figured that Donaire would given up that strap and just focus on defending his World Boxing Organization title, but it looks he wants to keep that belt for some reason. Arce is way out of his class in this fight, not just because he’s an old guy at 33, but mostly due to him not having the size to fight at super bantamweight.

He doesn’t look at this fight and needs to move back down to light flyweight where he was almost unbeatable. At super bantamweight, Arce is just a small old guy that doesn’t have the size, power or youth to compete against the best fighters. Of course, he’s going to stay at this weight because this is where the money fighters are – Donaire and Abner Mares – but he’s not going to beat either of them.

Arce only knows how to fight in one style and that’s by brawling in a head first manner. That style is going to get him knocked out in two or three rounds against Donaire. I expect Arce to come up with an injury like in his recent fight against Jesus M Rojas when Arce was getting thrashed in the 2nd round. Arce went down and didn’t get back up after getting fouled. I suspect that we’ll see Arce get hurt in this one too after getting hit someplace. If he doesn’t get injured he’s going to get knocked out badly.

Arce is a well known fighter, and given his age and his small size, he’s a safe fight for Donaire. He’s not dangerous like Mares or Guillermo Rigondeaux. Those guys can potentially beat Donaire, but Bob Arum seems more interested in exhausting all the well known older guys before eventually putting Donaire in with the best fighters in the division.

After Donaire destroys little Arce, Arum will likely put Donaire in with Cristian Mijares in another mismatch. That’s not quite as bad as the Arce mismatch, but it’s close. Mijares isn’t in the class of the top super bantamweights and he’s past his prime by at least six years.



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