Manny Pacquiao & Nonito Donaire: What The Hell Took So Long?

By Jose “Silensachi” Batista

This Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas Manny Pacquiao will meet Jessie Vargas for the WBO Welterweight Title. The co-feature will have Nonito Donaire against Jessie Magdaleno.

The PPV will be produced and distributed by Top Rank therefore no replay will be available on HBO the following week. We have grown accustomed to watching Pacquiao fight on the HBO network for the better part of over a decade.

This event will feature a double dip of quite a few things. The main event and the co-feature will feature two fighters who were born in the Philippines opposite fighters who are both Mexican-American. There are two fighters named Jessie involved in the main event and co main event. The most significant duo of fighters though is not named Jessie.

It is long overdue that the Filipino icon Manny Pacquiao and Nonito Donaire share the ring on the same night. Pacquiao, 58-6-2, 38 KO’s undoubtedly is the greatest Filipino fighter of all time; anyone who opposes those sentiments may need to have their pulse checked. Donaire, although not as accomplished as Pacquiao, has had a very good career. Donaire, 37-3, 24 KO’s was amongst the top fighters P4P (pound for pound) in the world years ago.

Pacquiao and Donaire were in their primes at the same time. One has to wonder what in the hell took Bob Arum (Top Rank Promoter) so long to have these two men in the same card?

The two on a pay per view card would have generated an incredible amount of buzz and hype in years past.

Pacquiao was a bona fide pay per view star while Donaire who wasn’t as big still had a hot name. Donaire was big enough to headline several main events throughout his career. Perhaps putting them together didn’t make sense financially to those who were directly involved with the fighters as they were both Top Rank Cash Cows.

Both Pacquiao and Donaire have seen their best days, however both men can still walk out of Las Vegas being world champions although both fights will be 50-50. It took forever to get both men on the same pay per view, their promoter may be squeezing out that last drop of juice from the oranges, it was something that just had to happen, even if it is just one time.

[si-contact-form form=’2′]