Donaire signs four-year deal with Top Rank

Photo by AP/Aaron Favila

World bantamweight champion Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire has inkeda four-year contract with Top Rank and will figure in a title fight on the undercard of the Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito WBA light middleweight title fight at New York’s famed Madison Square Garden on Dec. 3.

Initial efforts by Top Rank were aimed at a unification bout with WBA champion Anselmo Moreno last May 28, but the deal fell through.

Donaire, the WBC and WBO champion, bolted Top Rank and signed with Golden Boy Promotions.

Donaire returned to the Top Rank fold when former judge and arbitrator Daniel Weinstein ruled that GBP could not deal with Donaire while he was under contract with Top Rank.

Promoter Bob Arum told the Inquirer he had “big plans” for Donaire and was putting together a fight card on Oct. 3 between WBO super bantamweight champion Jorge Arce and WBC champion Yoshiaki Nishioka and that “both guys will sign for the winner to fight Donaire for the WBC 122 pound title.”

In a news release, Donaire and Top Rank president Todd DuBoef announced that they will “move forward together in promoting Donaire’s stellar professional boxing career.”

Donaire is ranked No. 3 in the pound-for-pound rankings of the Ring Magazine.