Donaire, Rigondeaux make weight for unification bout

NEW YORK - Nonito Donaire Jr. and Guillermo Rigondeaux both checked in beneath the 122-pound weight limit for their WBO/WBA junior featherweight title unification bout Saturday night (Sunday, PHL time) at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. "The Filipino Flash" Donaire (31-1, 20 knockouts) of San Leandro, Calif. weighed in at 121.6 pounds, while Rigondeaux (11-0, 8 KOs) of Miami, Fla. by way of Cuba checked in a tenth of a pound lighter at 121.5. [Related: Once bullied, Donaire now stares down Rigondeaux and fears] Donaire and Rigondeaux repeated their stare-down from Wednesday afternoon's press conference, with Donaire gesturing towards his own eyes, daring the WBA titleholder Rigondeaux to maintain eye contact. There was some levity as the assembled crowd broke out into laughter when the 5-foot-6 Donaire bent his knees slightly to be at eye level with the shorter Rigondeaux, who stands about 5-foot-4. Despite height and reach disadvantages, the southpaw Rigondeaux figures to be one of Donaire's toughest battles to date from a tactical standpoint. Rigondeaux, 32, defected from Cuba in search of professional glory in 2009 and won his first world title last year with a knockout victory over Rico Ramos in just his ninth pro fight. He has since defended his belt twice over once-beaten contenders Teon Kennedy (by KO in 5) and Robert Marroquin (by unanimous decision). Donaire, 30, is coming off his busiest year since 2005, winning four fights and The Ring magazine's junior featherweight title, while earning himself the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) Fighter of the Year Award for 2012. Donaire is now rated number five by The Ring's pound-for-pound list. Having won title belts at flyweight, super flyweight, bantamweight and junior featherweight, Donaire's promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank tells GMA News he is hoping to set-up a clash between Donaire and former junior featherweight/featherweight titleholder Juan Manuel Lopez (32-2, 29 KOs) of Puerto Rico in September at 126 pounds should he defeat Rigondeaux. The Ring is reporting that Donaire will make a little over $1 million USD, while Rigondeaux will pocket $750,000. The Donaire-Rigondeaux fight, which will be televised by HBO in the United States, will be contested in front of a sell-out crowd, according to a Top Rank press release. - AMD, GMA News Ryan Songalia is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) and contributes to GMA News. He is also a member of The Ring ratings panel and can be reached at ryan@ryansongalia.com. An archive of his work can be found here. Follow him on Twitter too.