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.

Jorge Arce stopped Rafael Concepcion after nine rounds tonight in Mexico City, winning the WBA's interim 115-pound title in an outstanding, dramatic slugfest at Arena Mexico that should be seen by every fight fan. It'll surely pop up on YouTube or something soon.

Arce started the fight strong, imposing his will on the smaller Concepcion, but the game Panamanian fought back to win the third round and absolutely dominate the fourth, sending Arce stumbling around the ring for the majority of the three minutes. It was amazing that Arce stayed up through that round, and his legs looked bad for a couple more after that.

But Arce did what he does -- fight -- and used his power and size advantage to send Concepcion on the defensive. Flurry after flurry with Concepcion pinned against the ropes had Arce racking up points, and he took over for good in the eighth, his own totally one-sided round. The ninth was another Arce round, and after the bell sounded to end it, a battered, worn-out Concepcion retired from the bout.

Hats off to both men for this fight, which was superb and a whole hell of a lot of fun. This was definitely one for the year-end top 20 -- hell, it's one for the year-end top 10 (that's off the top of my head). Excellent stuff, and well worth staying up late.

The massive crowd at Arena Mexico deserves their own round of applause. They were wonderful.

Just another reminder that every Jorge Arce fight is worth watching, really. Rafael Concepcion proved himself to be more than a one-knockout wonder, too. How he managed to stay up under those barrages from Arce is beyond me, and had me in awe a few times.

What a fight this was. Again, track it down if you missed it tonight. You won't be sorry. If you like a good brawl, then this is for you.

On the undercard, Jorge Solis scored a fourth round TKO over Jorge Samudio in a short, sweet, entertaining affair. Nothing special, but nothing much wrong with it, either.

You know what I hate about this coming weekend? No boxing.

To try and cover some time, I'll be watching and scoring the fight between Jorge Arce and WBA interim super flyweight titlist Rafael Concepcion tonight, starting at 10 11pm ET on TV Azteca. Arce is always a hoot, and Concepcion is coming off of a shocking and devastating knockout of Filipino prospect AJ Banal.

If Concepcion wins again tonight, I'll consider it another massive upset. Arce is obviously far more experienced, bigger, has the hometown advantage, and should be considered the heavy favorite.