Nonito still chasing PPV fighter status

CARSON, California—Nonito Donaire Jr., is earning $800,000—his biggest paycheck to date—fighting revered Japanese former champion Toshiaki Nishioka.

His manager, Cameron Dunkin, told the Inquirer that his ward achieved  a milestone for Saturday’s fight (Sunday morning in Manila), where Donaire is staking his WBO and IBF super bantamweight titles against former WBC champ Nishioka at Home Depot Center here.

He said Donaire, a certified crowd-pleaser but still an untested crowd-drawer, is ripe for a pay-per-view fight but there are a lot of things to be considered before he earns that lofty status.

“It’s Bob (Arum of Top Rank), he discusses it with HBO and see if they want to distribute it. But first we got to have a great opponent, and we got to have the right place,” said Dunkin, who also handles the career of Manny Pacquiao’s recent tormentor Timothy Bradley.

He added that a fight with Mexican Jorge Arce could be a PPV material had the flamboyant fighter not backed out at the last minute, allowing Nishioka to seal the fight which will be aired on HBO Boxing After Dark.

“I mean an Arce fight, with just the Mexico people, would be a pay-per-view fight,” said Dunkin, who bared that the Mexican warrior asked more than $1 million which caused the talks to fall through.

Yet among Arce, WBA champion Guillermo Rigondeaux and another Mexican sensation Abner Mares, Dunkin would pick the current WBC titlist to be Donaire’s next opponent.

“Rigondeux doesn’t sell a ticket. He doesn’t mean anything. No one cares about him,” said Dunkin of the undefeated Cuban who has challenged Donaire in the past. “He did a $15,000 gate, literally for his first world championship. That’s not a pay-per-view guy.”

Mares, he said, would be it because of an expected big demand given the bitter rivalry between Filipino and Mexican boxers.