No more Donaire-Mares bout

Nonito Donaire Jr.'s first fight of the year with Abner Mares was scratched after the Mexican decided to give up his World Boxing Council (WBC) junior featherweight belt to climb to the featherweight division.

ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael reported that since a Donaire-Mares bout looked farfetched, the Guadalajara-born fighter and his manager, Frank Espinoza, decided to move up to the 126-pound division.

Mares (24-0-1, with 13 knockouts), who is handled by Golden Boy Promotions, challenged Donaire, one of Bob Arum’s top fighters at Top Rank, for a unification bout. The Filipino Flash holds the World Boxing Organization (WBO) and The Ring versions of the belts.

“Moving up to featherweight was already in our plans even before this Donaire situation,” said Mares. “We wanted to fight Donaire and we did whatever was possible in our power to make that fight. That is the fight that I wanted. That is the fight the fans wanted. It didn’t happen.”

Golden Boy Chief Executive Officer Richard Schaeffer even sent a verbal and written offer with a guaranteed $3-million purse to Donaire’s camp to lure Arum into the negotiating table.

Arum and Donaire’s manager, Cameron Dunkin, turned down the offer, stressing they are already close to sealing an April 13 HBO fight against Guillermo Rigondeaux (11-0, with 8 knockouts), the World Boxing Association (WBA) champion.

Mares suggested a June bout with Donaire (31-1, with 20 knockouts) but the latter refused, saying he would attend to his wife Rachel, who is expected to give birth to their first child either in the last week of June or early July.

The 27-year-old Mares opted to try his luck in the 126-pound class with hopes of challenging either WBA king Chris John of Indonesia (48–0–2, with 22 knockouts), WBC champ, countryman Daniel Ponce de Leon (44-4, with 35 knockouts), WBO and The Ring title holder Miguel Angel Garcia (31–0, with 26 knockouts) or International Boxing Federation conqueror Billy Dib (34-1, with 21 knockouts) of Australia.

“There needs to be a reason to stay at 122 [pounds]. I don’t make 122 easily. So I have the chance to move up to 126. I have accomplished a lot already, so I said let’s give this a try and conquer another weight class.”

“The ball was thrown to Donaire and Top Rank and they didn’t want to take the fight. It was a very good offer. They could have thrown a counteroffer but they never did. That says a lot,” added Mares.

And with Donaire set to fight two-time Olympic gold medalist Rigondeaux, Mares was left with no choice but to make a mandatory defense of his WBC title against little-known Victor Terrazas (36-2-1, 21 knockouts), a bout that is expected to attract less attention.

“Terrazas needs me more than I need him,” Mares said. “If I fought him and won the fight, everyone would say ‘Who is Terrazas?’ I don’t need that fight or to do a mandatory. I paid my dues. There’s no better time to move up to featherweight. My goal is to become champion again in that weight class.”