Donaire vs Arce: Guillermo Rigondeaux likely for HBO co-feature fight

As if cosmic forces are attempting to make the fight eventually happen, Guillermo Rigondeaux will likely be in the HBO co-feature fight on December 15, when Nonito Donaire faces Jorge Arce at the Toyota Center in Houston.

Rigondeaux (11-0, 8 KO) would defend his WBA super bantamweight title against Thailand's Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym (48-2, 33 KO). Poonsawat is a former titlist himself, winning the WBA title from Bernard Dunne in 2009. He made two defenses against Satoshi Hosono and Shoji Kimura before dropping the title to Ryol Li Lee in 2010.

Since then, Poonsawat is 7-0, but against marginal competition. Rigondeaux last fought on September 15, beating Robert Marroquin on the Chavez Jr-Martinez undercard. The Cuban has campaigned for a fight against Donaire, but Nonito has specifically balked whenever really pressed on the issue, despite also frequently saying he'll fight anyone.

If the fights do get paired together, Rigondeaux could have some pressure to be more exciting than is natural for him, although more likely than not he'd fight like he always does, and if something exciting happened, that would be the day's affair and little more. If he does fight on that date, and wins a dull decision, and then Donaire beats Arce, you can already hear Donaire citing Rigondeaux's boring performance as a reason to not make the fight.