Nicholas Walters tabbed for Dec. 12 return on HBO

Nicholas Walters saw his profile rise quite a bit after smashing Nonito Donaire last October. But since then, some of that sheen has worn off some, mostly due to inactivity. After the Donaire win, Walters was set up to fight Miguel Marriaga in what was supposed to be a tune-up bout that would be a per-cursor to Walters fighting Vasyl Lomachenko.

Those plans changed, however, after Walters failed to make the featherweight limit of 126lbs for Marriaga in June, and was subsequently stripped of his title. Walters would still go on to beat Marriaga, but the fight with Lomachenko fell by the wayside since Loma was only interested in unifying the featherweight titles. With no belt, Walters had no fight.

There was a bit of uncertainty regarding where Walters would campaign after missing weight, but promoter Bob Arum is going to have Walters fight at 130lbs in his next outing on a December 12th HBO undercard. An opponent has yet to be determined.

"The main thing is we want to get [Walters] back in there and see what he can do at junior lightweight," Arum said.

Arum had thoughts of making a fight between Walters and Yuriorkis Gamboa, but all signs point to Gamboa leaving SMS Promotions (which recently for bankruptcy) and joining Mayweather Promotions. It 's pretty well known that Mayweather and Arum have a rather acrimonious relationship, so doing business together will probably be tough. Arum acknowledges that and says that Gamboa fight won't be happening in December.

We'll have to see what, if any, stumblebum Arum can wrangle for this one.