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Golden Boy's Richard Schaefer has decided to essentially claim a win for his fighter Abner Mares over Top Rank's Nonito Donaire, following Mares' actual win last night over Daniel Ponce De Leon for the WBC featherweight title.
There was a lot of (non-)talk about having Mares and Donaire fight at 122 pounds recently, which wound up not happening, because, you know, duh and all that, as Top Rank and Golden Boy don't work together, so while Golden Boy made their $3 million grandstand offer, which they knew would not be accepted because Top Rank and Golden Boy don't work together, so they could have offered anything, and it doesn't really mean much, Schaefer has decided that Mares' win last night over Ponce De Leon is basically a win over Donaire, who wound up losing to Guillermo Rigondeaux on April 13.
"Now you know why the Donaire fight didn't happen - because Bob is not that dumb. He's been doing it for 50 years. He knows it, and [Top Rank matchmaker Bruce] Trampler knew it too - Donaire would have gotten his ass handed to him."
Look, it's a very legitimate possibility that Mares would have or would still beat Donaire, if that fight ever happened. It's still a great fight on paper and one a lot of people would love to see, but with things the way they are right now, one we will not see any time soon.
But claiming a win in a fight that didn't happen is bogus. It's dumb when "The Money Team" does this with Manny Pacquiao, too. They took Juan Manuel Marquez's win over Manny and tried to make it their own. Now Schaefer has done the same here, with the simple equation that Rigondeaux beating Donaire + Mares beating Ponce De Leon)= Mares beat Donaire. Richard has been doing it for a few years.
Mares is absolutely a terrific young fighter, now a three-division world champion at age 27, a guy who fought wonderfully last night against Ponce De Leon. He deserves all the credit for what he's actually accomplished so far. He doesn't deserve credit for something he didn't do, though.