There are a few changes
regarding the next fight for Nonito Donaire, who was thought to be facing Jorge
Arce on October 20th. This card has been moved up a week to accommodate
Filipino television and it looks like he won’t be facing “Travieso” after all.
“That is correct,” Bob Arum told me. “We want to make sure because it's a major HBO card- we're talking
Brandon Rios and Mike Alvarado- that we want to get Donaire the biggest
challenge and the biggest challenge that's out there that's readily available-
and that's [Toshiaki] Nishioka.”
But hold on; that's a nice
fight and all but did he say Rios and Alvarado on the undercard?
“Yeah, and who says it's the
undercard?” replied Arum. “They're going to fight each other on that card. We'll
determine what the main event is.” OK, cross your fingers on that coming to
fruition. Seeing is believing.
As for the potential
match-up between WBO featherweight titlist Orlando Salido and Mikey Garcia,
which was talked about as a possible opener for Donaire, it could possibly end
up on the Manny Pacquiao undercard. But Arum notes, “We have an obligation to
Showtime and we're telling them, ‘Look, you have rights on this fight because
you did the other fight in Puerto Rico [between Salido and Juan Manuel Lopez
back in March]. Let us know if you want to do it or not.’”
BATTLE
In what is a sign of the times in boxing, with Donaire moving to HBO on October 13th, this means he will be fighting on the same night Abner Mares performs on Showtime. So what we have are two guys who should be on a collision course with each other (in what would be the most commercially viable and perhaps best stylistic match-up at 122) instead seemingly moving opposite ways on separate networks, fulfilling their destinies without one another.
Yeah, it's the “Cold War.”
