By Rob Smith: Promoter Bob Arum is practically tripping over himself with his happiness at how good his fight IBF/WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (29-1, 18 KO’s) is looking as he prepares for his October 13th fight against 36-year-old former WBC super bantamweight champion Toshiaki Nishioka (39-4-3, 24 KO’s) on HBO at the Home Depot Center, Carson, California.
Speaking with Manila Standard, Arum said that the 29-year-old Donaire is displaying “Unbelievable strength” in getting for their fight for the vacant Diamond super bantamweight strap, which the World Boxing Council has conveniently put on the line for this fight, as if the bout didn’t already have more than enough titles up for grabs. Not only happy with Donaire’s strength, Arum gushed about the interest in the fight, saying “A lot of interest, real grassroots interest in the fight, and everybody is excited while while ESPN is giving him [Donaire] a lot of coverage.”
That’s kind of weird, because I can’t see any threads about the Donaire-Nishioka fight at any of the major boxing forums. It’s as if the fights not taking place at all. Usually when there’s an important fight taking place in a week like the Donaire-Nishioka fight on October 13th, the boxing forums have multiple threads daily. But I can’t find one thread in any of the sites, which kind of tells me that Arum screwed up by matching Donaire against the guy from Japan Nishioka.
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