Donaire to defend title vs Hungarian in April

MANILA, Philippines – WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire Jr. will defend his crown against Zsolt Bedak of Hungary on April 23 at the Araneta Coliseum.

This after Carl Moretti of Top Rank Inc., which promotes Donaire, said that Bedak on Friday returned a signed contract finalizing the fight.

"It's a great opportunity for Nonito to defend his world championship in his homeland against a world-ranked and extremely capable opponent,” Moretti told Dan Rafael of ESPN.com.

The Donaire-Bedak bout will be reportedly aired by ABS-CBN here.

Bedak is ranked No. 4 by the WBO and has a record of 25-1, with eight knockouts. In 2010, he challenged Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. for the WBO super bantamweight crown but lost via technical knockout in the 10th round.

Incidentally, Donaire outpointed Vazquez in 2012 for the same world title, which happened to be vacant at that time.

After several title defenses, the Filipino-American fighter lost the diadem to slick Cuban Guillermo Rigondeaux in 2013 before moving to featherweight. He regained the championship through a hard-earned unanimous decision victory over a tough Cesar Juarez in Puerto Rico in December last year.

Now Donaire will get to defend it again, this time against Bedak in his second reign. – Dino Maragay