By Jeff Sorby: WBA super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux may not like this news. WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire said on his facebook page his wife is pregnant and that he doesn’t fight in June, July or August because he wants to be with her during this time. Said he’d turn down even millions of dollars if it were offered to him.
What this could mean is that unless Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is able to match him up against Rigondeaux or WBC super bantamweight champion Abner Mares in the next three months, which seems highly unlikely, Donaire won’t be fighting until September. That would mean he’ll only defend his World Boxing Organization title once this year.
For some boxing fans this will look like Donaire is dodging the Rigondeaux fight because he was one of the possibilities for his next fight. However, that fight wasn’t likely to happen because there have been rumors that Donaire could fight other guys. Rigondeaux probably wouldn’t have gotten he fight anyway, so it’s not really a big deal that Donaire won’t be fighting for a long time.
Donaire was picked as the 2012 Fighter of the Year by ESPN, Yahoo and Sports Illustrated for his wins over Jorge Arce, Toshiaki Nishioka, Jeffrey Mathebula and Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. There was some controversy over Donaire getting the pick because some boxing fans pointed out that he really didn’t beat anyone that you could call a really good fighter among that group.
Arce and Nishioka were kind of over the hill, some said, Mathebula was a paper champion in the minds of some fans, and Vazquez Jr. had been knocked out recently by Arce. The fights that boxing fans wanted to see Donaire involved with were Mares and Rigondeaux, but his promoter Bob Arum didn’t put Donaire in with them and it doesn’t look like Donaire will be fighting either of them in 2013 either unless Arum can get one of them for late in the year.