Nonito Donaire, Top Rank Offer $100,000 Bonus to Any Fighter Who Will Try to Fight

Frustrated by the October 22 fight between Nonito Donaire and Omar Narvaez, Top Rank and Donaire are now offering a $100,000 bonus on top of whatever the purse would be for Donaire's next opponent to actually make a fight of it. From RingTV.com:

"It's no bounty at all on his head. I only feel like I got robbed by an opponent who took a lot of money and didn’t fight and then had the audacity to climb the ropes and raise his arms at the end of the bout," wrote [Todd] duBoef in an e-mail to RingTV.com.

duBoef said that Donaire and manager Cameron Dunkin are fully behind the idea. One thing I do have to question is whether or not Top Rank had ever actually seen Narvaez fight. I'm sure Bruce Trampler or whoever the matchmaker was had seen him in action, but it kind of sounds like duBoef had not. Narvaez has always been a "negative" fighter, never an exciting fighter, never someone you'd rely on for action. When the fight was made with Donaire, I figured it could go one of two ways: A Donaire blowout where he physically overwhelmed Narvaez, or a stinker where Narvaez hung around and didn't let it become a fight. It was the latter.

But it's cute PR anyway. Donaire is moving up to 122 pounds for his next fight, and discussed opponents include top super bantamweight Toshiaki Nishioka, titlist Jorge Arce, and Wilfredo Vazquez Jr., but I wouldn't count out none of those guys getting the fight, and Donaire possibly facing Rafael Marquez, who may not have it physically but still seems to have the desire to fight, and believes he defeated Nishioka in their October 1 bout (this puts him in a gross minority).

Nishioka's management says he won't fight again until May, but Bob Arum wants to sweeten the pot to get him in the ring sooner, reportedly. Arce is willing to fight Donaire, but Vazquez still wants his rematch with Arce. So there may be some roadblocks with those fights. If there are, Marquez could make sense, or as much sense as it could make. I'm not saying consider Marquez a front-runner, but keep him in mind as a darkhorse candidate.