By Mick Akers
Top Rank president, Todd DuBoef, shed some light on the Nonito Donaire–Abner Mares saga and revealed that talks weren’t as close as most had hoped or wanted.
DuBoef said that Golden Boy never gave him or anyone else at Top Rank a call on a Donaire-Mares bout. With how the two sides have been in other big fight negotiations as of late, we may never see the two in ring against each other.
With Floyd Mayweather Jr. claiming he is going to fight Devon Alexander next (although the IBF says otherwise) the first “big” fight of 2013 is still yet to be signed.
Sure, any Mayweather bout is a big event, but taking on Alexander not only puts him in against a fighter the public may not know, it also alienates the core boxing fan as most feel either Robert Guerrero or Saul “Canelo” Alvarez should be his next opponent.
With the long rumored Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao bout never coming to fruition after years of back-and-forth between Top Rank and Golden Boy in the press, one could only hope that the Donaire-Mares situation doesn’t follow the same path, although it has already started down it.
With boxing looking for its next big superstar to replace the soon exiting Mayweather and Pacquiao, the only way to find that star is to put the best in with the best and Donaire and Mares are certainly that.
