By Ryan Maquiñana
After challenger Omar Narvaez gave the Madison Square Garden Theater faithful a less-than-memorable performance over 12 rounds last Saturday night, Top Rank president Todd duBoef has decided to entice the next opponent of WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire with a little cold, hard cash--$100,000 to be exact.
“I don’t want guys fighting for me who just want to make it to the finish on their feet,” duBoef told Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports. “I want guys who are going to come to fight to win. That’s the point of this bonus. The next time Nonito fights, I’m going to put that $100,000 up as a winner-take-all bonus and see if that incentivizes the guys to go out and fight.”
The proposed six-figure bonus would go to the victor along with his contracted purse. The loser would still keep his original share, but one would hope dangling the prospect more dollars will prevent another reluctant challenger in the future.
Top Rank CEO Bob Arum has publicly stated that Donaire’s next fight might involve a move up in weight in March against WBC junior featherweight champion Toshiaki Nishoka of Japan.
Ryan Maquiñana is the boxing correspondent at Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, and Ring Magazine’s Ratings Advisory Panel. E-mail him at rmaquinana@gmail.com, check out his blog at www.maqdown.com or follow him on Twitter: @RMaq28.
