By Luis Sandoval
Things have got very interesting in the last couple days in negotiations between Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank over a possible Nonito Donaire-Abner Mares fight. Golden Boy made both a verbal and written offer of 3 million dollars to Top Rank for the services of Nonito Donaire for a fight to take place no later than June 30, 2013. Rick Reeno has since posted a copy of the 13 page contract on BoxingScene: https://www.boxingscene.com/donaire-vs-mares-full-contract-details-revealed--61876
Top Rank and Donaire’s manager Cameron Dunkin have acknowledged receipt of Golden Boy’s contract but turned down the offer and will continue with a proposed April 13th fight with possible opponents WBA Super Bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux and Vic Darchinyan. Donaire also cited there were details in the contract he was not on board with.
Abner Mares was on the most recent edition of BoxingScene’s official radio show - The Boxing Lab - and shared his thoughts on the situation and Top Rank not accepting the offer his promotional company sent over. Mares felt if there were issues in the contract that Donaire and his team did not agree with, they should have submitted a counter-offer and tried to negotiate to reach an agreement.
"Nonito is complaining about the details on the contract and making excuses. Okay, Nonito could've easily counter offered in writing. It got me to the point of frustration and mad too and that was the only reason I was responding on Twitter because he is making it seem like we weren't doing anything. Like we were all bluff. And we weren't” said Mares.
“My promotional [company] said 'here's 3 mil' and Nonito said 'no, that's just bluff, put it on paper'. What did we do? We put it on paper. [Then they said] 'Oh, that's not a legitimate contract'. What did we do? We put it out there, 13 pages. And now what's his excuse? 'Oh, it’s not a good contract'. Well send your counter offer and we'll make it happen. But that only lets us know he's not trying to make the fight happen. I'm not saying he's scared of me, a lot of people are saying he's not scared of me. Of course he's not, he's a fighter but let's make that fight happen for the fans”.
Another underlying problem is that Donaire has already said he would be taking time off for the birth of his first baby with his wife Rachel Donaire and would not be boxing from June to August. Golden Boy’s contract stated they had up until June 30, 2013 to make the fight happen.
Mares said that would not be an issue as not only would he be ready to go April 13th when Donaire is looking to fight, he’s fighting in April regardless if Donaire accepts the fight or not.
“I've been working out. That's why when they said they didn't want to fight in June because of his baby, and congratulations to him and his family, and I understand, [but] April 13th is there. I'm willing to fight April 13th because I'm training. I'm staying active and I'm training. If this fight doesn't happen, I'm [also] fighting in April” Mares would tell The Boxing Lab.
Mares feels he and his promoter have done everything possible in order to try to make this fight a reality. Abner is open to revisiting the fight again later this year but feels things could get done now if Donaire and Top Rank send a counter-offer and reach a middle ground.
You can listen to Abner Mares’ interview in it’s entirety by downloading The Boxing Lab podcast: http://tobtr.com/s/4203385
You can follow Luis Sandoval on Twitter @truewest007. You can also tune in to Boxingscene’s official audio show The Boxing Lab every Tuesday from 6-8PM PST with host Ernest Gabion, Luis Sandoval, and Ryan Burton.