Arce to move to 118 in wake of win over Concepcion

Ronnie Nathanielsz reports that Jorge Arce, who won the interim WBA super flyweight title on Monday night in Mexico, will move up to 118 pounds and vacate the title. An editorial note would include that the title is worthless, superficial, and nothing but a way for the WBA to charge fighters sanctioning fees for "championship" fights.

Arce's choice as far as the WBA title went was to fight newly-crowned "regular" titleholder Nobuo Nashiro (12-1, 7 KO), who won a split decision over Kohei Kono in Yokohama, also on Monday night. Nashiro had held the title previously, but lost it to Alexander Munoz in May 2007. Munoz later lost to Cristian Mijares in a title unification bout, and now Mijares is the "unified" or "super" champion, while Nashiro holds the previously-vacant "regular" title, and Arce holds the "interim" title, or at least he did for a couple of days.

See what I mean? Nashiro's title is worthless, Arce's was even moreso, and only Mijares really counts in this discussion, and I doubt Arce ever wants another piece of that dude.

There is good reason for Arce to move up. For one thing, outside of Vic Darchinyan, the chances of him beating one of the top boxers at 115 is slim, and even Darchinyan's power may well be too much for Arce, who seems drained at 115, a division for which he has a very big frame. Concepcion, a smaller man (and notably so), hurt him and had him reeling. After losing to Mijares, he went up to 118 for two fights before returning to 115 earlier this year. He has struggled in both fights.

What is there at 118? Honestly, it's a shallow division, but there are some good scattered fighters. Gerry Penalosa? That could renew the Mexico-Philippines rivalry. Abner Mares is on the way up. Hozumi Hasegawa is largely regarded as the division's best.

I also wouldn't count out a jump all the way to 122, as Arce has said he'd love to fight super bantamweight champion Israel Vazquez. I think Vazquez would beat Arce down, but I also know for a fact that it'd be exceptionally exciting while it lasted.