Donaire trying to focus on here and now

Nonito Donaire Media Day

Whether Nonito Donaire faces Gerson Guerrero or last-minute substitute Manuel Vargas, it doesn't really matter. The "Filipino Flash" is supposed to win. He knows it. Manager Cameron Dunkin knows it, and Top Rank promoter Bob Arum knows it.

They all know that if Donaire takes care of Vargas, an opponent only secured Wednesday after Guerrero failed a prefight eye exam, the door for a series of important fights will likely be open.

Donaire, a regular on the pound-for-pound list, will defend his interim junior bantamweight title against Mexico's Vargas on Saturday night (Top Rank PPV, 9 ET, $39.95) at the Las Vegas Hilton in the main event of "Latin Fury 13/Pinoy Power 3."

Despite the fact that few expect Donaire (22-1, 14 KOs) to have any serious issues with Vargas (26-4-1, 11 KOs), he's trying not to get too far ahead of himself.

"That's the hardest part for a fighter, not looking ahead," Donaire said. "It's a lot of pressure on your shoulders. This fight is a gate for my future fights. I have to fight this fight first before I get those bigger names. This is where I've seen fighters stumble and not get their biggest fight. I try to stay focused as much as I can. When I train, though, I get the vision of fighting those other guys and it's hard to focus on this guy.

"I'm not purposely looking ahead, but part of my mind and body is so excited about those other fights that it's hard not to. So this fight is sort of like the motivation. I trained so hard because I don't want to stumble."

Those "other fights" Donaire is talking about include a rematch with unified division champion Vic Darchinyan, whom Donaire knocked out in a 2007 flyweight title fight; Jorge Arce, the charismatic action star who claimed a title a couple of weeks ago; and bantamweight titleholder Fernando Montiel, who defends his belt against Ciso Morales in one of the televised undercard bouts.

"I definitely want to fight those guys, especially Arce and Darchinyan," said Donaire, who is friends with Arce. "It's now or never because my body is feeling the pain of cutting down weight and it's doing more harm than good. I am concentrating on making the weight more than on being in shape, so it's now or never. If those guys want to step up, fine, but we have to schedule it. I want it on paper that we'll make it happen. Boxing is a short life span. I want to reach my potential. If I stay at 115 for a while, it will limit me from where I want to be."

Where he'd like to be is eventually at featherweight, where he says Israel Vazquez has called him out.

"What I want from Darchinyan is the two belts he holds. From Arce, I want the belt he holds," Donaire said. "I don't really want to wait for an opportunity that will take a long time to happen. I want to do those fights, Montiel at 118 and then you have Vazquez. Let's go."

Said Dunkin, "Nonito is 26. He wants the high-profile fights. It's just a matter of putting them together. He's ready to make the move."

Donaire iced Darchinyan with one massive punch in the fifth round to score the upset. A rematch has been talked about since. Now that Darchinyan is the champion at the heavier weight and Donaire is technically his mandatory challenger, it makes all the sense in the world.

"I'm in favor of that rematch," Arum said.

Darchinyan has a Showtime fight on March 6 against Rodrigo Guerrero, but after that his camp is as ready as he is to make the fight.

"I'm on record saying that we're ready to sit down and negotiate that fight on March 7," said Gary Shaw, Darchinyan's promoter.

"Gary said that he could do it in August on Showtime," Dunkin said. "In fact, Darchinyan is fighting [March 6] because he wants to stay on schedule with Donaire."

Arce was beaten down by Darchinyan over 11 lopsided rounds in February 2009. It looked like that might be the end of Arce, who won his next fight but then lost a clear decision to Simphiwe Nongqayi for a vacant belt in September. However, Arce remained alive for another significant fight when he soundly defeated Angky Angkota to claim a vacant belt last month. An Arce-Donaire bout is easy to make because they are both promoted by Top Rank.

"To me, I love Jorge Arce and I only can see one way the Donaire fight ends, which is not so good for Arce," Arum said. "But if [co-promoter] Fernando [Beltran] and Arce want to do it, I would go along, but it wouldn't make me happy."

Donaire wants to fight both guys.

"I would love the rematch with Darchinyan. I want to make it happen," he said. "Everyone wants it. I dissected his style and he hasn't changed. I am ready for it. I'm trying to go after his two belts. But for me, it doesn't matter what order it is. If I get Darchinyan, then I want Arce next. If I get Arce, then I want Darchinyan next. That's what I want to make happen. And then I am ready to move up to 118 and take on Montiel. I think that's the best scenario. If I get past Montiel, I am ready for 122 right away."

While at ringside Saturday, Dunkin will be watching Montiel closely in anticipation of a possible fight with Donaire.

"The Arce and Darchinyan fights are doable, but Montiel is for sure," he said. "I would think that will happen, and I will be watching Montiel closely. That's a terrific fight when Nonito gets to 118."

Arum, who also promotes Montiel, said it's a fight he would also like to make.

"Donaire is a terrific fighter, a terrific talent," Arum said. "He says he is going to go all the way up to featherweight, which means a helluva lot of good matches for him."

The smaller fights, like Donaire-Vargas, are often money-losers for Top Rank, which makes it all the more important to get the higher-profile matches made.

"All you can do is just keep going," Arum said. "You keep him busy and hope you get lightning in a bottle. Other than Showtime, which has showcased Darchinyan, there is really no market for these little guys in America, which is sad because they are very good fighters. So what we have to do is resort to our own devices and do these pay-per-views which can showcase them, and hopefully do enough revenue to pay for it. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. It's a lot of work, not a lot of reward. But these kids deserve a chance."

With a win, it looks like Donaire will get his.

Source: Dan Rafael  | ESPN Go

Where, oh where, is Floyd's signature?

Richard Schaefer, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, is usually a calm, cool and collected sort. The former Swiss banker doesn't get rattled easily.

Tuesday morning, however, he sounded rattled, expressing concern about why Floyd Mayweather Jr. has not signed his contract to face welterweight champ Shane Mosley on May 1 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, in as big of a fight as there is in the sport.

It has been five days since both sides acknowledged an agreement on terms.

Mosley, of course, put pen to paper on Friday in Las Vegas, where his attorney, Judd Burstein, went through the paperwork with him point by point.

"He is excited to move forward with the bout," Burstein told me at the time.

Burstein also added that he had been assured by Leonard Ellerbe, one of Mayweather's advisers, that there were no problems on their side.

"I confirmed with Leonard that there are no issues," Burstein said.

Ellerbe's quote to me for the story I wrote Friday was, "All of the deal points have been agreed to. We still have to put pen to paper, but everything is agreed to."

Yet five days later, Schaefer still does not have a signed agreement from Mayweather. He was clearly at wit's end when he called me about it Tuesday morning.

"He still hasn't signed. I am so frustrated," Schaefer said. "I wanted both guys to go down to the Super Bowl in Miami to do some promotional stuff. I don't know what Floyd is waiting for. I have no clue. I have a signed contract from Shane on my desk. I have nothing from Floyd."

Schaefer said he is in constant touch with Ellerbe and Al Haymon, Mayweather's other adviser, and when he asks them where the paperwork is, the response is always the same: "Every day, it's the next day. They say, 'Don't worry, it's going to come.' Well, where is it? I'm waiting for the signature before we can move on."

Burstein said he and Mosley were also quite aggravated by the delay.

"I am outraged," Burstein said when I reached him Tuesday afternoon. "I have a client who acts in a professional manner. He allows me to negotiate a deal for him in constant consultation with him. When it all gets put on paper, we go over it and, as promised, he signs if it's OK. That's what happened on Friday. It was signed with the assurance from Al Haymon and Leonard Ellerbe that everything was agreed to and there was no problem."

So what does Burstein believe is the issue?

"It's either one of two things that has happened," he said. "Either he's rethought the wisdom of risking his undefeated record against Shane or he chooses to act like a 7-year-old. Hopefully, it's the latter and he will mature very quickly. But either of these possibilities is completely unacceptable to us. He's going to end up in a fight with Mosley. The only question is whether it will be in the ring or in court."

Now, May 1 is still a ways off, but for a megafight the magnitude of Mosley-Mayweather, kicking it off with promotional appearances at the Super Bowl is significant. When Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya met in May 2007, their media rounds at the Super Bowl generated enormous interest in the fight, which went on to set the all-time pay-per-view record.

Schaefer wants to follow the same blueprint. He said Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr., who will meet April 3 in a pay-per-view rematch that Golden Boy is co-promoting, will be in Miami to help drum up interest in their fight, so he can't understand why Mayweather is MIA.

So I asked Schaefer if he was concerned that the Mosley-Mayweather fight might be in trouble?

His answer was simply, "Yes."

I asked him if he would elaborate.

"At this point, I don't know," he said. "We want to do some big PR, so this is frustrating. I read Leonard's quotes that it was agreed to and that it was just a matter of time to get it signed, but if it's all done, why isn't it signed?"

Schaefer has been down this road with Mayweather before, perhaps one of the reasons for his concern. He negotiated a fall 2008 rematch between Mayweather and De La Hoya, which also had been agreed to and was on the verge of being announced. However, Mayweather never signed the paperwork and instead announced his retirement, which lasted 18 months.

"I am not having flashbacks to anything, but [the Mosley fight] is still not signed," Schaefer said. "I don't know what it means. Obviously, we can't move forward with the promotion, including some important activities that were planned for this coming weekend, unless we have a signed deal."

Before negotiating with Mosley, Mayweather was close to a deal to face Manny Pacquiao on March 13 in what would have been, by far, the sport's biggest fight. But that fight fell apart shortly before what was supposed to have been a kickoff news conference in early January. The reason was because the fighters couldn't reach a compromise on drug-testing protocol. Mayweather insisted on testing that went far beyond the rules of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. While Pacquiao accepted some additional testing, he refused random blood testing.

Both fighters moved on. Pacquiao quickly made a deal to defend his welterweight belt against Joshua Clottey on March 13 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Mayweather and Mosley began their talks after Mosley's Jan. 30 unification fight with Andre Berto was canceled.

So while Pacquiao wrapped up his deal with Clottey in about two seconds and Mosley signed on the dotted line in pretty short order, we all continue to wait for Mayweather's John Hancock yet again, including Schaefer.

"I always tell you, a signed deal is a done deal," Schaefer said. "It will only be done when Floyd signs, and that hasn't happened yet. I don't know of any deal terms that are not agreed to. I don't understand it."

Source: Dan Rafael  | ESPN Go

Erik Morales ends retirement in March

NEW YORK -- Former three-division champion Erik Morales will end a 2½ year-retirement and return to the ring in March, Mexican promoter Nacho Huizar told ESPN.com on Sunday.

Morales is scheduled to face former lightweight titleholder Jose Alfaro in a welterweight bout March 27 in Monterrey, Mexico, Huizar said.

"I think he'll sell pretty good, but not like he did last time," Huizar said, referring to Morales' onetime position as a significant pay-per-view attraction.

Morales (48-6, 34 KOs) is a former junior featherweight, featherweight and junior lightweight champion and one of the best fighters in Mexican history. He challenged for a lightweight belt in his last fight, but lost a decision to David Diaz in August 2007 before retiring.

There was a steady stream of talk of a possible comeback since then, but nothing ever materialized until now.

Huizar said it was Morales who called him and asked him to promote the fight in conjunction with his own company.

"After I heard he was going to come back, he called me and begged me to be his partner," Huizar said. "It's an honor to me for him to pick me. If I don't do it, somebody else will."

Morales-Alfaro will be televised in the United States via Integrated Sports pay-per-view.

Huizar said they signed a six-fight deal for three fights this year and three in 2011. Huizar acknowledged that six more fights for Morales, 33, is a reach at this stage.

"We'll see what happens," said Huizar, who said he promoted Morales' first five pro fights before Morales went on to become a major star under the guidance of co-promoters Top Rank and Fernando Beltran's Zanfer Promotions.

Even before the loss to Diaz, Morales was a shell of the great fighter who had been in three all-time slugfests with rival Marco Antonio Barrera and several other memorable battles.

Morales lost four fights in a row and five of his last six, including two knockout losses to Manny Pacquiao. The one victory Morales notched during his late-career slide came against Pacquiao in the first fight of their trilogy. Their March 2005 fight was the last time Pacquiao lost.

Immediately after losing a competitive fight to Diaz, Morales announced his retirement.

"That's it," Morales said at the time. "No more fighting. I am done. Too many punches, particularly to the head area."

Jose Morales, Erik's father who raised him in a Tijuana apartment above a boxing gym, supported his son's decision to retire, saying after the fight with Diaz, "Erik has taken too many punches. It has to stop."

Jose Alfaro (23-5, 20 KOs), 26, of Nicaragua, held a lightweight belt for five months in 2008. His last fight was an interim lightweight title bout in October where Antonio DeMarco stopped him in the 10th round.

Source: Dan Rafael  | ESPN Go

Pacquiao-Clottey tickets on fire on 1st day of sales

NEW YORK -- Sure, most boxing fans really, really wanted to see pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao fight Floyd Mayweather on March 13. While that fight isn't happening now because of their inability to agree on how to handle drug testing for the bout, the public seems to have accepted with open arms Pacquiao's replacement fight.

He's going to meet former welterweight titleholder Joshua Clottey on HBO PPV on March 13 in the first boxing event to be held at the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, outside of Dallas.

In just the first three hours of public tickets sales (preceded by three days of limited pre-sales) on Saturday, more than 20,000 of the approximately 40,000 available were gobbled up. They ranged in price from $50 to $700.

"Ross Greenburg and I are very gratified that the public has responded like they have, and we are happy for our partner (Cowboys owner) Jerry Jones," Top Rank promoter Bob Arum told me on Saturday night at the Madison Square Garden Theater.

Arum and Greenburg, the president of HBO Sports, were sitting together shortly before the telecast of Top Rank's doubleheader, featuring featherweight title bouts pitting Steven Luevano and Juan Manuel Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa and Rogers Mtagwa.

Arum said if the demand for the fight continues the capacity of the stadium, which is 100,000 or so for Cowboys games, can easily be increased.

"It's going to be quite a night," Arum said. "And Jerry isn't just a one-event guy. If he sees this as a success you can be sure he'll do more boxing in that great stadium."

Also Saturday night, junior middleweight titlist Yuri Foreman and former welterweight titlist Miguel Cotto were in the house. Arum, who promotes both, was talking with both sides trying to finalize a June 12 fight between them, which he is planning for in the Madison Square Garden main arena.

Source: Dan Rafael  | ESPN Go

Mayweather also fighting on March 13

Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao will still compete against each other on March 13, but not in the ring. Instead, they will be duking it out for pay-per-view buys.

Two days after Top Rank's Bob Arum, Pacquiao's promoter, announced plans for Pacquiao to defend his welterweight title against former titlist Joshua Clottey on March 13, Mayweather is making plans to fight on the same night.

While Pacquiao will face Clottey at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, just outside of Dallas -- Arum concluded a deal with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on Sunday -- Mayweather will face an opponent to be determined at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer told ESPN.com on Sunday night.

"It's a date Golden Boy has had for a long time and nothing has changed," Schaefer said. "We have been talking to Team Mayweather to see who the opponent will be. I hope to have something to announce in the next few days."

The MGM Grand was supposed to host the Pacquiao-Mayweather megafight before it broke up for good on Friday over a month-long dispute between the camps on the drug testing protocol for a bout that many believed would be the highest grossing fight in history.

According to sources, Mayweather's list of potential opponents includes former junior welterweight titlist Paulie Malignaggi and Golden Boy-promoted former lightweight titlist Nate Campbell, both smaller men than Mayweather, as well as former welterweight titlist Kermit Cintron, who is a similar kind of opponent as Clottey is for Pacquiao. There is also a more remote possibility of Mayweather facing junior welterweight titlist Timothy Bradley Jr., who has ties to Showtime, which may not want to let him walk away for a possible fight on rival HBO PPV.

One opponent Mayweather will not be facing is Matthew Hatton, the brother of former junior welterweight champ Ricky Hatton, whom Mayweather knocked out in a 2007 welterweight title fight. Reports in Matthew Hatton's native England indicate that he is under consideration.

However, Schaefer said that is not the case.

"There is absolutely no truth to the rumors about Matthew Hatton. I can't tell you for sure who Floyd will fight, but I can tell you for sure it won't be Matthew Hatton," Schaefer said.

With Pacquiao and Mayweather going their separate ways against lesser opponents on competing pay-per-view cards, HBO, which has broadcast both fighters' biggest bouts on pay-per-view, is in a position where it will have to make a choice on whether it will support one fighter over the other or neither.

The network has been mum on its plans for March 13, although Arum and Schaefer both told ESPN.com that they have spoken to the network about their fights. Arum is also prepared to put on his event as a Top Rank-produced pay-per-view.

It would be highly unusual for there to be pay-per-view cards on the same night featuring major stars in separate bouts, but that is exactly what could happen.

"It is unusual, but what can I do," Schaefer said. "It wasn't Floyd who walked away from the Pacquiao fight. There is nothing I can really say about it. I've had the date [March 13] for a long time. Initially it was for the Bernard Hopkins-Roy Jones fight [which won't come off because Jones was knocked out in a Dec. 2 interim bout]. You know what? It is what it is. I'm not getting excited about it anymore. I am sitting outside having a cigar and [expletive]. It is what it is.

"It's not good. Its not good for Pacquiao to go on that date, which we had for a long time. We had that date, end of story. So it's not good. How can it be good? It's not good for boxing. It's not good for boxing that Pacquiao and Mayweather are not fighting each other. I worked really hard to make that happen and it's not. And I am not belittling Pacquiao's fight with Clottey. It's OK. Hey, we have a piece of [the promotional contract of] Pacquiao. But is it ideal? No it's not. Is it the end of boxing? Is the world collapsing? No it is not. We all have to look to March 14. March 13 will pass and on March 14 boxing will still be there and there will be exciting fights, and nothing will change that."

Schaefer said he was unsure what HBO planned to do, but he hoped it would support Mayweather's bout.

"Nobody wants competing fights. HBO doesn't want it," he said. "Nobody in their clear mind can be happy about Mayweather fighting somebody else or Pacquiao fighting somebody else. But we all have to live with it and accept. I'm a boxing fan too and I am pissed off about what happened. Anyone who says anything different is lying. I wish there had been something I could do about it, so I am very frustrated and disappointed, but Floyd Mayweather will still fight."

If Mayweather wins his March bout, Schaefer said he could next meet Shane Mosley, the welterweight champion (and Golden Boy partner) who first faces Andre Berto in a Jan. 30 unification fight. Before taking the fight with Berto, Mosley spent months trying to land a bout with either Mayweather or Pacquiao.

Source: Dan Rafael  | ESPN Go