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Nordine Oubaali vs. Nonito Donaire official, date and location to be determined

Nordine Oubaali (Photo by Scott Hirano).
Fighters Network
26
Feb

In mid-December, news broke that four-division titlist Nonito Donaire was the mandatory challenger to WBC bantamweight beltholder Nordine Oubaali after Luis Nery missed weight for a title eliminator against Emmanuel Rodriguez and the bout was subsequently cancelled.

After two months of negotiations, there was a purse bid, which was won by TGB Promotions. The winning bid was for $401,000 and split 60/40 in favor of Oubaali.

Oubaali, who is rated No. 2 by The Ring at 118 pounds, is close to learning when and where the Donaire fight will land.

“We are waiting for the fight date,” Oubaali told The Ring. “Apparently the deadline is March 1. Then we will know if it is May 16 or June 27 and where in America it will be.”



The 33-year-old Frenchman ended his country’s world title drought when he beat Rau’shee Warren for the vacant title on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao-Adrien Broner. He has since retained his title twice, stopping Arthur Villanueva in six rounds last July and then outpointing Takuma Inoue in November.

Although Oubaali (17-0, 12 knockouts) is focused on Donaire (40-6, 26 KOs), he admits he will have one eye on the unification between The Ring Magazine /IBF/WBA champion Naoya Inoue and WBO titlist Johnriel Casimero and is targeting the winner later in 2020.

“The fight between Inoue and Casimero is set before my fight against Nonito Donaire on April 25 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas,” he said.

“The winner of this fight will be certainly my next opponent.”

 

 

Questions and/or comments can be sent to Anson at [email protected] and you can follow him on Twitter @AnsonWainwright.

 

 

 

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