By Ronnie Nathanielsz

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is hoping that WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Nonioto “The Filipino Flash” Donaire will return to the promotional arm with which he has a contract and allow Top Rank to work on a title defense.

Arum didn’t wish to exacerbate what some consider a touchy situation after Donaire signed up with Golden Boy Promotions but told BoxingScene.com/Daily Inquirer “we are working on it.”

He said Top Rank president Todd Dubeof was “talking to his people and hopefully this will be resolved.”

Donaire’s attempt to break away from Top Rank and sign up with Golden Boy was stopped by former judge Daniel Weinstein, the arbitrator of all disputes between Top Rank and Golden Boy who ruled that GBP could not interfere with Donaire’s promotional contract which was still with Top Rank.

Donaire went to court in Las Vegas alleging that Top Rank was in breach of contract since they f ailed to give him the three fights a year stipulated in their agreement.

However, Arum claimed that due to injuries to his hand following two of his fights, Donaire was required to rest and that the period lost which was some 300 days effectively stopped Top Rank from fulfilling the three-fights-per-year deal and had automatically extended his contract by the months lost.

The contractual dispute and Donaire’s signing with Golden Boy Promotions scuttled a planned unification title fight against WBA champion Anselmo “Chemito” Moreno scheduled for May 28.

Moreno (31-1, 11 KO’s) scored an impressive 8th round TKO over former world champion Lorenzo Parra in Panama City over the weekend.

In a post fight interview reported by regular Manila visitor and Panamanian boxing writer Carlos Costa, Moreno indicated that after one more title defense he would like to face Donaire. Costa quoted Moreno as saying “I hope it will be Nonito Donaire, God willing. We might wait early next year for that fight. Let’s hope that my first fight in 2012 will be my unification bout with Nonito Donaire.”