By Dennis "dSource" Guillermo
WBO and Ring jr. featherweight king Nonito Donaire, Jr. expressed his frustrations regarding his potential December 15th opponent Jorge Arce, stating that the fight is likely not happening due to Arce's allegedly lofty financial demands.
"We already tried to ink the fight 5 or 6 times, but they keep on demanding everything. I have the belt and yet they're still demanding?" Donaire told our sports media partner Snow Badua of PTV Sports.
"Arce knows I'm going to his lair. They know that I'm fighting though I'm still injured. Yet they still don't want to get the fight done," Donaire added.
"I'm a pretty dangerous opponent. I have power. I can hurt him when I choose to. It's just that he wants to get paid. That's what he wants; he wants more than what he deserves."
Donaire feels that Arce is simply overpricing himself to avoid tangling with him, even after conceding all the advantages to the popular Mexican fighter.
"He can't ask for all this money if there's not even a lot of money that's going to be put in there," Donaire said regarding Arce.
Donaire emphasized that he has a minimum set for each of his fights with his promoters, which is why he doesn't need to bargain for a fight, and that his opponents need to lower their financial demands if they truly want to challenge him. Donaire's minimum with Top Rank is just a little below $800,000 per fight.
Asked if Arce simply wanted more money as a retirement insurance plan, Donaire laughed it off and replied, "somewhere along those lines."
Sure enough, this scribe feels that at this point of both fighters' careers, a Donaire-Arce bout is indeed negligible. Arce is past his prime, while Donaire is still peaking, on top of the fact that his style will be preyed upon by the lethal Bohol-born counter puncher. Donaire will be better off allowing his left fist to heal and aiming at either the winner of the Anselmo Moreno-Abner Mares clash in two weeks, or the skillful Cuban, Guillermo Rigondeaux.
