Nonito Donaire and Top Rank Close to New Contract

Trainer Robert Garcia says that his fighter Nonito Donaire is close to a new deal with Top Rank, which would end a few months of bitter dispute between the two parties and hopefully get Donaire back in the ring soon.

The deal could be up to three years in length, which would secure Donaire with Top Rank until 2014. Donaire is risking being stripped of his WBC title, as the "sanctioning" body issued a rather comical official statement concerning the situation that I won't bother you with, because you probably don't care and it would ultimately change nothing about his position in the sport, so whatever, but if he wants to keep that belt he needs to get back into the ring by October or so, which would be easily doable right now if he gets the contract business sorted out.

Quite a turnaround from the guy who was going to flee in the middle of the night for the apparently greener pastures of Golden Boy Promotions just a couple of months ago, and you have to wonder what might have changed his mind. He could have easily completed his current deal with Top Rank and then gone wherever he wanted to, but he's sticking with a company he has alleged has not promoted him properly. There are about two ways it goes in the future. Top Rank might start "promoting him properly," which would mean that he's happy and fighting more often, or it's the same as before and they wind up in another beef that anyone could have seen coming a mile away.