Could Guillermo Rigondeaux be to Nonito Donaire, Jr., what Manny Pacquiao is to Floyd Mayweather, Jr.?
Reading between the lines with Nonito Donaire, Jr.’s post-fight interview with HBO’s Max Kellerman after his dominating 9th round TKO win over Toshiaki Nishioka, one has to wonder why the “Filipino Flash” reacts differently to Rigondeaux compared to other names presented to him.
“You always get annoyed with me when I bring up (Guillermo) Rigondeaux, but he is with your promoter and hardcore fight fans would love to see it,” asked Kellerman.
“To be honest with you, I believe he needs more guys to make me excited. I have to be excited for the fight, or else I’m going to get bored. Have you seen the last few fights? This fight I was so focused, because I know what this guy has and I want to feel that when I go in the ring when this guy challenges me, and I have confidence that this guy is a good fighter. They have to prove themselves to me to make me want to go at it,” Donaire responded.
Video: Fight Business Talk – Why isn’t Donaire fighting Rigondeaux
I don’t know anybody who has written and followed Donaire’s career closer than I have in the past 5 years, but even I can’t find sense in that statement. So Donaire is saying he got “excited” to fight Jeffrey Mathebula, Omar Narvaez, and those other lesser named guys, but he can’t get “excited” to fight Rigondeaux despite fans’ clamor? “Waldo” must’ve changed his name to “Logic” in this statement, because I sure can’t find him.
Rigondeaux is a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist, the fastest professional world champion ever, holds the WBA super bantamweight belt, and is a damn skilled boxer with cat-quick reflexes similar to, if not better than Donaire’s. If Donaire boxes like a chess Grandmaster such as Bobby Fishcher, then Rigondeaux is worthy of being called Garry Kasparov. I’m not saying one is better than the other, but that surely would make for an exciting tactical boxing match-up.
Donaire did offer an explanation to me in the past on why he hasn’t faced Rigondeaux yet which made more sense back then:
? “What people fail to see is that the negotiations is what makes the fight happen,” Donaire told me when I asked him about the whole drama regarding Rigondeaux a few months ago.
As much as Donaire wants, and has wanted to fight the biggest names available for him, truth is, boxing doesn’t work like that. Donaire has a contract with his promoter, and his promotional company has their own plans in how they intend to cash in and market their investment.
“People think I make all my fights, but I’ve called out all my fights,” Donaire said, and reiterated, “It’s the negotiation process is what makes the fight.”
“I don’t care. Whoever’s name is in that contract, that’s who I’m fighting. I’ll say ‘this and this and that’, I’ll say ‘hey I want to fight Mares’, ‘hey I want to fight Nishioka’, they’re going to take it in consideration, but they got to talk to the guys, and the guys that represent them, the networks and all that stuff. It takes a long time. Imagine that. This is just this level. Imagine the Mayweather and Pacquiao level,” Donaire explained.
“Lets say for example, the Darchinyan rematch; it was already a signed contract, but I guess, supposedly, ‘Darchinyan said’ I signed too let when there was three months still before the fight. But I think they just didn’t agree with the money,” Donaire continued. “From what I heard at that time, Darchinyan had the Armenian TV rights and Australian TV rights, but they wanted more. Like I said, it’s the negotiation process that makes the fight happen.”
As much as Rigondeaux is a very capable champion in the super bantamweight division, it doesn’t help his case that he is relatively unknown outside of hardcore boxing fanatics. Donaire makes a lot of money, and Rigondeaux is looking to make his share for a fight with Donaire. Unless he is willing to take way less, then a showdown with Donaire is a tough sell at this point.
“Or lets say with Rigondeaux; HBO has been disappointed with him,” Donaire pointed out. “HBO doesn’t want to match me with him for the fact that it might be a boring fight. They don’t want another Narvaez. That’s why they’d rather pick an Arce, or a Gatti type of fighter, because it’s exciting for them, because there’s blood and that kind of stuff.”
