By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum feels that his fighter WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (31-1, 20 KO’s) should be the 2012 Fighter of The Year for his wins over Jorge Arce, Jeffrey Mathebula, Wilfredo Vazquez Jr and Toshiaki Nishioka.
Arum said to the Manila Bulletin that Donaire should be “Fighter of the year.”
I’m sorry but I don’t agree that Donaire has done enough to deserve that distinction for beating those guys.
By Rusty Nate: Having watched the weekend’s events I thought I would put something to paper and just review the bouts as they happened.
I was present this weekend at the Excel event for George Groves’ next installment and what a great show it was regardless of the Burns fight being cancelled.
George Groves Vs Glen Johnson
This was a great fight. Groves really impressed me with his increased speed in this fight. He put together some great combinations and was able to handle Johnson in a better fashion than both Bute and Froch managed to. I am not saying Groves is at that level just yet but he is definitely moving in the right direction and it wont be long for him now I don’t think.
By Chris Williams: WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (30-1, 19 KO’s) made easy work of Jorge Arce (61-7-2, 46 KO’s) last Saturday night in a 3rd round stoppage in Houston, Texas. While Donaire’s loyal fans felt this was an excellent opponent just as many also felt that aging veteran Toshiaki Nishioka was a great opponent for Donaire as well, but knowledgeable boxing fans want to see Donaire fight the real top guys in the division Abner Mares and Guillermo Rigondeaux.
Donaire hasn’t seemed very eager to fight Rigondeaux for some reason, but last night Donaire mentioned him as a backup plan for him if he can’t get a fight with WBC super bantamweight champion Abner Mares in his next fight in 2013.
By Chris Williams: 33-year-old Jorge Arce said he ending his boxing career after getting blown out in a 3rd round TKO by WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire in Houston, Texas. Donaire hit Arce with a scorching left hook to the head that knocked him out in the 3rd round. Arce was already badly hurt at the time after getting knocked down moments earlier in the same round. Donaire ended up knocking the little 5’4” undersized Arce down three times in the fight.
This mismatch was just like the mismatch that Bob Arum put together between Manny Pacquiao and an over the hill 40-year-old Shane Mosley last year. Why these two fights were put together is beyond me, because they weren’t fan friendly fights in terms of being competitive. I think it’s bad for boxing to have mismatches like Donaire-Arce put together, because it’s not interesting to watch, and it gives a false impression about how good guys like Pacquiao and Donaire really are. We just saw Pacquiao exposed when he had to step it up and fight someone good, and I suspect the same thing will happen one of these days when Arum finally puts Donaire in with quality fighters like Mares and Guillermo Rigondeaux.
By Jim Dower: WBO super bantamweight Nonito Donaire (31-1, 20 KO’s) showed why most boxing experts consider him the best fighter in the 122 pound division by stopping Jorge Arce (61-7-2, 46 KO’s) in the 3rd round and sending him into an early retirement at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
Arce, 33, never really stood a chance in this fight, as he was knocked down three separate times by the bigger Donaire. The end of the fight, if you want to call it that, came when Donaire hit Arce was a hard left hook to the head that put Arce down. The fight was then halted at 2:59 of the round.
By Chris Williams: You can see why Jorge Arce (61-6-2, 46 KO’s) was so eager to get a fight with WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (30-1, 19 KO’s) when you look at the purse that the 33-year-old Arce will be getting to take on Donaire on HBO at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. Arce will receive $800,000, whereas Donaire will make $1 million for the fight.
That’s excellent money for Arce, especially when he really hasn’t done much lately to really deserve the fight in terms of beating anyone worth mentioning. Arce looked absolutely 100% horrible earlier this year in his fight with Jesus M Rojas. That was the fight that Arce fell down in the 2nd round and didn’t get back up, complaining that his ear hurt after getting hit on the side of the head by Rojas, who was dominating the action in that round.
By Dan Ambrose: In what’s sure to be the best fight on the card, WBA super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (11-0, 8 KO’s) battles #3 WBA Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym (48-2, 33 KO’s) on Saturday night in a fight on HBO on the undercard of the Nonito Donaire vs. Jorge Arce fight at the Toyota Center, in Houston, Texas, USA.
This is surely going to be a much better fight than the Donaire-Arce fight because that’s more like a mismatch between a top level fighter and an undersized fighter on the slide. The Rigondeaux- Poonsawat is the much better fight because Poonsawat isn’t undersized and he doesn’t’ have all the wear and tear on him that Arce has.
Leading the charge out of the Bay Area would be 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist Andre Ward who won a very grueling (as he would say) Super Six Tournament last year defeating Carl Froch with one good hand. Shortly after the tournament in 2011, Andre Ward received Fighter of the Year and deservingly so.
This year it’s without a doubt in my mind that another Bay Area native WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire will receive the Fighter of the Year award upon winning his fourth fight this year against Jorge Arce on Saturday December 15th at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
By Chris Williams: WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (30-1, 19 KO’s) doesn’t think that his fight this Saturday night against 5’4” Jorge Arce (61-6-2, 46 KO’s) will be going the distance and few boxing fans are disagreeing with him.
Donaire’s promoter Bob Arum selected the 33-year-old Arce to fight Donaire instead of the much, much more relevant Abner Mares or Guillermo Rigondeaux, and this fight is shaping up to be an even worse mismatch than Donaire’s fight against a WAY past his prime 36-year-old Toshiaki Nishiaka, who Donaire said was the best fighter in the super bantamweight division leading up to the fight.
By Dan Ambrose: 33-year-old Jorge Arce (61-6-1, 46 KO’s) is a huge underdog for this Saturday’s fight between him and WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (30-1, 19 KO’s) on HBO Sports at the Toyota Center in Los Angeles, California. The problem that Arce, 5’4”, has in this fight is threefold. He’s much shorter than the 5’6 ½” Donaire, he’s not as powerful as him and he’s much slower as well. Those are three pretty big areas for Arce to be at a disadvantage in because you don’t like to see a fighter missing all of those ingredients fighting a champion on television.
It tends to make for a bad fight, but that I don’t think this bout was made because it was thought that Arce had a chance to win. Arce appears to have been selected more so for his past accomplishments and because of his popularity among Mexican boxing fans rather than what he’s done lately.