Dubbed as D-Day (Demolition Day), the Nonito Donaire Jr vs Jorge Arce battle was held on December 15 (December 16 in Manila) at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. Nonito Donaire won via a 3rd round knockout, beating the Mexican.
Nonito Donaire clearly dominated the fight scoring a knock down over Arce from a quick short right hand in round 2. Donaire ducks a punch in round 3 and floored Arce again. The shaky Arce stood up but he was welcomed with a monster left hook from Donaire, landing right on his jaw and he's down--end of the fight.
Jorge "El Travieso" Arce is Donaire's fourth world class opponent this year. In February, "The Filipino Flash" moved up to the 122-pound division and captured the vacant WBO super bantamweight title by beating Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. by split decision at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
In July, Donaire knocked off the IBF belt holder, Jeffrey Mathebula at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, the same venue when he stopped Japanese Toshiaki Nishioka via a round 9 TKO in October, successfully defending his IBF and WBO super bantamweight belts.
Nonito Donaire's record improved to 31-1-0, 20 KOs while Jorge Arce's record now goes 61-7-2, 46 KOs. With Donaire's spectacular win, he might be a candidate for "Fighter of the Year," putting an exclamation point to his credentials this year.
An even bigger 2013 awaits Donaire, who is now up in the pound-for-pound ranking. According to bleacher report, "superfights are still waiting for him at 122 in Abner Mares and Guillermo Rigondeaux. If he chooses to move up to 126, he's got great potential fights in opponents like Orlando Salido, Daniel Ponce de Leon and Billy Dib."