Rigondeaux-Donaire possible for June

By Boxing News - 12/19/2012 - Comments

donaire22By Chris Williams: WBA World super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux’s manager Gary Hyde says he’s been given a promise by Top Rank Promotion Bob Arum that he’ll set up a fight between Rigondeaux and WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire in June next year after Rigondeaux gets in a title defense of his World Boxing Association 122 pound title on February 23rd.

In an interview with the El Nuevo Herald, Hyde said “Rigos next fight is scheduled for February 23rd against an opponent still to be named. Promoter Bob Arum promised me Rigo-Donaire fight will be in June 2013.”

That sounds like a great fight if Arum will actually make it, but I don’t see it happening. If Arum wanted to make a Rigondeaux-Donaire fight he would have likely done it already. Rigondeaux just doesn’t fit the type of opponent that Donaire has been facing.

Look at the guys that Donaire has been fighting recently – Toshiaki Nishioka, Jorge Arce, Jeffrey Mathebula, Wilfredo Vazquez Jr, Omar Narvaez. Nishioka and Arce were pretty much over the hill, Mathebula a little known paper champion, Vazquez Jr. had been recently knocked out by Arce at the time Donaire fought him, and Narvaez was a super flyweight.

Rigondeaux doesn’t fit the pattern of the type of opponent that Arum has been matching Donaire with, and I can’t see the wily Arum breaking the mold by putting Donaire in with someone that has a good chance of beating him like Rigondeaux.

Donaire says he wants to fight Abner Mares and Guillermo Rigondeaux, and then possibly move up to featherweight. But he also says that he’s not the one that chooses his fights. He makes recommendations but at the end of the day he fights whoever his promoters match him up with, and I don’t see him fighting Mares in this lifetime and probably not even Rigondeaux. I hope I’m wrong because it would be nice to see Rigondeaux and Donaire go at it to see who the best fighter is between them, but do you honestly think Arum will risk putting Donaire in with Rigondeaux?

Arum is going to need a replacement for Manny Pacquiao real soon to become a big pay per view star, and with Donaire’s high appeal among Filipino boxing fans, Arum could have his guy if Donaire isn’t beaten by anyone. This is why I don’t see Arum letting Donaire fight Rigondeaux, because a loss for Donaire will mess up any ideas of Donaire becoming the next Pacquiao.



Comments are closed.