Donaire vs. Nishioka, Rios vs. Alvarado official for Oct 13th

WBO junior featherweight titleholder Nonito Donaire will defend his belt against Japan's Toshiaki Nishioka in an HBO-televised fight from the Home Depot Center in Carson Calif., on Oct. 13, Top Rank Inc. CEO Bob Arum told RingTV.com on Sunday.

Arum also confirmed a report by BoxingScene.com that former WBA lightweight beltholder Brandon Rios (30-0-1, 22 knockouts) has reached a verbal agreement to appear on the Donaire-Nishioka undercard in his junior welterweight debut against rugged Mike Alvarado (33-0, 23 KOs).

A three-division beltholder, Donaire (29-1, 18 KOs) had been seeking high-profile bouts against the likes of Nishioka (39-4-3, 24 KOs), WBA counterpart Guillermo Rigondeaux (10-0, 8 KOs), WBC beltholder Abner Mares (24-0-1, 13 KOs) or four-division titlewinner Jorge Arce (60-6-2, 46 KOs).

But Donaire has made it clear that he believes Nishioka represents the most definitive of challenges.

"I think that the best guy in this division that I want to prove myself against is Nishioka," said Donaire. "I think that Nishioka is the better of all of the guys. He's proven himself in this weight class to be the real champion."

Nishioka was at ringside at Home Depot Center for last month's unification bout, when Donaire scored a tough, unanimous decision over South Africa's IBF beltholder Jeffrey Mathebula (26-4-2, 14 KOs), ending the loser's three-fight winning streak.

With a decision over Eric Morel in April, Mares won the WBC belt that had been vacated by Nishioka, who stretched his winning streak to 16 straight fights with his last triumph by unanimous decision over two-division titleholder Rafael Marquez in October.

Meanwhile, Donaire's accomplishments include knockouts of three-division titlewinner Fernando Montiel and ex-beltholders Volodymyr Sydorenko and Vic Darchinyan in the second, fourth and fifth rounds, respectively, as well as a split-decision over Wifredo Vazquez Jr. and a decision over previously unbeaten WBO junior bantamweight titleholder Omar Narvaez.

Rios is coming off a controversial split-decision over Richard Abril in April that followed his 11th-round knockout of John Murray in December.

On the Rios-Abril undercard, Alvarado used relentless pressure, his vaunted physical strength and power punching to earn a hard-fought, 10-round unanimous over Mauricio Herrera (18-2, 7 KOs). alt

Prior to facing Herrera, Alvarado staged a dramatic, come-from-behind, 10th-round knockout of Breidis Prescott on the undercard of a main event that featured WBO welterweight titleholder Manny Pacquiao's majority decision win over Juan Manuel Marquez in November.

In the bout with Prescott, Alvareado dropped his rival with a vicious left-right-left uppercut series, and then landed a similar series of blows after that which forced referee Jay Nady to wave an end to his knockout.

Alvarado required a knockout to win, since he trailed 87-84 on the cards of Patricia Morse Jarman and Lisa Giampa, and, 86-85, on that of Jerry Roth. Alvarado closed by landing 27 of 38 power shots thrown in the 10th.

The end came at 1 minute, 53 seconds of the 10th, as Alvarado scored his 10th stoppage over his past 12 bouts against Prescott, who is best known for a 54-second knockout over former RING No. 1-rated junior welterweight and IBF and WBA beltholder Amir Khan in September of 2008.

Prescott was stopped for the first time in his career by Alvarado, who survived a treacherous fourth round during which a nasty, right uppercut from Prescott opened a cut over his left eye which bled throughout the fight.

"I think that for me, Rios against Alvarado is going to be a modern-day [Arturo Gatti-Micky Ward,]" said Arum. "I think that it's going to be an unbelievable fight."

flapanther2001 wrote:Nice card.

dmar5143 wrote:gentlemen id like to remind everyone that i said dont be suprized if its nishioka next for donaire but i thought after the arce fight.i said hes willing to fight anyone .he and mares are 2 fighters who i believe will fight anyone..again id like to remind folks that the comments made in the past that arum will never put chavez in the fight with martinez nor donaire with noshioka .well folks there fighting with a month of each other and against fighters that several have said arum will never allow them to fight so and so..these 2 events prove that line of thinking was dead wrong.lets give arum a tiny bit of credit guys..ohh yes dont be suprized if donaire trounches this guy.
reading this post surprized me that the fight was made fast.i guess telling arce to shit or get off the pot worked or they said look uncertainty that he may pull a gamboa so lets get nishioka now.whatever happened its a fight folks have been asking for.donaire will shock again as he trouces this guy.

dmar5143 wrote:the rios fight is a huge plus..hbo has done there job folks.they have had big cancellations etc etc but out of the blue two unexpected things happened also on hbo.2 fantastic fights 2 big upsets.ortiz and kahn got beat in action fights.in the long run i think hbo will do us right.yes thell put a fight on thats questionable at best but overall the matches are decent.this card is excellent.