Nonito Donaire turns down Jorge Arce fight for December 15, terms not agreeable

In news that won't surprise many, or at least comes as no surprise to me, the Nonito Donaire-Jorge Arce fight for December 15 in Mexico City looks like a no go, as Ryan Maquinana reports that Donaire has turned down the current proposal, as the terms were not agreeable enough for him to risk going to Arce's home turf.

Bob Arum said on Tuesday that they were still working on the fight, and hoped to know something by Wednesday or Thursday. It appears as though we probably know what was expected, that for the umpteenth time, talk of Donaire-Arce was just talk.

This is obviously a fight Arum is legitimately high on, as he's been pushing it for a couple of years now, but it's never really come all that close to reality. They've negotiated it several times now, and it always hits a snag, one way or another. Arum is probably high on the fight because it's high-end for notoriety as far as Donaire is concerned; without a popular guy like Arce as his opponent, he's "reduced" to taking on credible but US-unknown foes like Jeffrey Mathebula and Toshiaki Nishioka.

Those are good fights, but promoters want events, and neither of those main events qualified as events. Arce is also surely seen as a low-risk option for Donaire, as the Mexican veteran seems tailor-made for a fighter of Nonito's caliber. It's win-win for Top Rank, as their guy probably gets a high-profile win over a star fighter (relative to the 122-pound division), and they make about as big a fight as possible.

But it just keeps not happening, and it's hard to imagine that it will. Unless Top Rank is prepared to make a blowaway offer to Donaire for this fight, it seems as though it will be pushed to the backburner yet again.