Nonito Donaire vs Jorge Arce: Formal announcement of Dec. 15 fight could come Monday

A report out of the Philippines says that a formal announcement could be made on Monday for a December 15 fight in Mexico between Nonito Donaire and Jorge Arce.

Donaire (30-1, 19 KO) is coming off of a dominant ninth-round TKO win over Toshiaki Nishioka on October 13, and given that he took no punishment in the fight, getting him back quickly suggests that Nonito is hungry to fight, and to get this long-rumored Arce bout done. Donaire did suffer a left hand injury against Nishioka, but says it's not a real concern.

Arce (61-6-2, 46 KO) last fought on September 22, beating Mauricio Martinez.

While Donaire-Arce probably isn't going to get too many hardcore fans excited, as most seem to view it as a predictable mismatch at this stage of the two fighters' careers, it's a good fight in a lot of other ways. For one, it keeps Donaire active, and for another, it's a bigger fight than Donaire's bouts this year with Wilfredo Vazquez Jr, Jeffrey Mathebula, and Nishioka.

Arce, simply put, is a bigger star than any of those fighters, particularly in Mexico, where the fight should draw a really good crowd. And while I'm personally a big proponent of a Donaire-Guillermo Rigondeaux fight, there's absolutely no arguing that that bout is bigger than Donaire-Arce.

In other words, Donaire-Arce, if it's actually going to happen this time (unlike the other supposed dates for the fight), makes sense because it makes dollars, and even if you view it as a no-brainer outcome, there are certainly worse things Donaire could be doing than fighting every couple of months, with an opponent like Arce being "low-end."