Last month, I had penned this in the lead up to Nonito Donaire?s clash against Nishioka Toshiaki for the WBO super bantameight belts.
My initial feelings heading into the last quarter of 2012 was that by Election Day (Did you vote, boxing fan?) although Donaire might have upped his ranking in the mythical ratings in his July effort, no fighter would have done more than my personal pick, Danny Garcia, for the annual Fighter of The Year honor.
Not even top five ranked fighter and title holder Donaire, who has managed to both keep his top ten status and attain 118 titles on the way in three consecutive winning efforts thus far in 2012.
Well, things changed this week as Top Rank announced that the ?Filipino Flash? would be taking on veteran Jorge Arce in Houston in December.
The fight against ?Travieso? will be the Philippine native?s fourth fight this year, capping off a stellar year that started with a WBO super bantamweight title winning effort over Wilfredo Vasquez Jr. in February, followed by a jaw breaking, title adding (IBF) spat against Jeffrey Mathebula in July, then only three months later the title defense TKO victory over Nishioka, and now Donaire is only waiting two months between title defenses in taking on Arce.
If successful and impressive in December, Donaire will have Obama?d Garcia, who up to this point had been a front runner for FOTY with a title winning effort and two successful light welterweight defenses via knockout over Erik Morales (twice) and Amir Khan (TKO4).
Although he is a premium network fighter who has been showcased this year on HBO Championship Boxing, Donaire, (30-1, 19KO) is breaking the taboo of fighting twice, or even once a year once making it to the spotlight of the sport, and also willingly going into a bout he may very well lose, due to Arce?s pedigree. In doing so, he will be bidding to make 2012 a year to remember the ?Flash?.
For fight fans, this match is truly an awesome way to end 2012. Donaire is an uber-gifted, come-forward, lead type fighter who thus far has not found a dance partner who can hold up to trading shots, and in Arce, well, simply put, knows no other way to fight, and has been an entertaining fighter pretty much ever since making his debut in his native country of Mexico in 1996.
Arce?s, (61-6-2, 46KO) 2005 slugfests against Hussein Hussein in the flyweight division are just about legendary, and coming off his last loss in September 2009, Arce has had a resurgence of sorts, logging nine wins with six knockouts and was first before Donaire in beating Vasquez Jr. with an upset TKO 12, who was undefeated up to that point in May 2011.
Though Arce logged a foul plagued under-card fight on this years? Pacquiao/Bradley card against Jesus Rojas, in which I saw Arce still a bit discombobulated at the post fight presser after being fouled multiple times by Rojas, which ended up in a ridiculous ?no decision?, (Rojas should have been DQ?d) Arce got back in the win column in September with a lopsided win over Mauricio Martinez, and the pride of Los Mochis still has some mileage left in the tank to make interesting fights at this point of his career.
And it is highly commendable that Donaire is seeking to test himself one more time in the ring before 2013, showing that he loves to employ his craft and with picking Arce as an opponent, wants to appease the masses with a fan friendly fight.
Along the way, Donaire just may end up with Fighter of the Year honors for 2012.
