Donaire-Montiel in Cotto-Chavez undercard?

MANILA, Philippines – Nonito Donaire, Jr. could finally fight Mexican Fernando Montiel this year possibly in the undercard of the Miguel Cotto vs Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. event in December.

Top Rank, Inc. CEO Bob Arum, who is cooking up both fights, said the Donaire-Montiel bout could happen on December 4, the planned fight date of Puerto Rico’s Cotto and Mexico’s Chavez.

Although Arum was unable to say exactly when Donaire will see action again, he confirmed that “The Filipino Flash” will face off with Montiel.

Arum mentioned this after announcing that Donaire and Montiel will not join the six-man round-robin bantamweight tournament of US cable television network Showtime.

“Yeah, but Donaire won't go in because Montiel won't go in. So those two guys are out. They’re going to fight each other,” Arum told Lem Satterfield of FanHouse.com.

“And their fight will not be part of the tournament,” he added.

The venue of the planned December 4 bout between Cotto and Chavez has not yet been announced. Arum said they are eyeing Atlantic City, the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada or the Madison Square Garden in New York.

Arum, meantime, explained to Ricardo Lois of Examiner.com he turned down Showtime’s offer for Donaire and Montiel to compete against Mexican Abner Mares, Colombian Yonnhy Perez, Ghanaian Joseph Agbeko, and Armenian Vic Darchinyan.

“I don’t want my guys fighting in there just because there are big paydays. If one gets hurt and is in a condition where he should not keep fighting, I don’t want them in there,” the Top Rank big boss said.

Donaire, the World Boxing Association (WBA) interim super flyweight champion, earlier aired his concern that his fight with Montiel will not push through. (Read: Donaire-Montiel bout on the ropes?)

Montiel, who is nicknamed “Cochulito,” is the World Boxing Council (WBC) and World Boxing Organization (WBO) bantamweight champion.

Both fighters are coming off wins. Donaire (24-1, with 16 KOs) defeated Mexican Hernan Marquez by an 8th round technical knockout last July 10 while Montiel (43-2-2, with 33 KOs) beat Panamanian Rafael Concepcion by a 3rd round knockout on July 17.

– With reports from FanHouse.com and Examiner.com