By Ryan Burton
Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer feels bad for former champion Nonito Donaire, who suffered a twelve round unanimous decision loss to Guillermo Rigondeaux last weekend in New York City.
Schaefer had been trying to make a super bantamweight unification fight between Donaire and then WBC champion Abner Mares. He offered Donaire's promoter, Top Rank, a financial package of $3 million dollars for the services of Donaire.
Schaefer's advances were rejected. In response, Mares vacated his WBC title and moves up to featherweight to challenge WBC champion Daniel Ponce De Leon as the co-feature to the Mayweather-Guerrero Showtime Pay-Per-View on May 4th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. On the other end, Donaire was matched against Rigondeaux, who is also promoted by Top Rank. Most insiders view Rigondeaux as having one of the most difficult styles in boxing.
Schaefer does not expect to make any matches with Top Rank, including a Rigondeaux vs. Mares clash. He feels Donaire was cheated out of a very lucrative opportunity against Mares when Top Rank rejected his proposal and instead matched "The Filipino Flash" against Rigondeaux.
"Unfortunately with [Top Rank's CEO Bob] Arum you have a promoter who you can't really work with. He only wants to do in-house and that's what happens when you do in-house fights - and the one who really got cheated out of the opportunity, financially and professionally, is Donaire. I feel bad for the guy but that's what happens. There is no sense in talking about fights with Top Rank guys because it won't happen. It's just fruitless energy and wasted effort. As long as this guy is going to promote you are going to see this kind of thing and I feel bad for his fighters," Schaefer told BoxingScene.com.
