Dunne unable to pin down Vazquez

Bernard Dunne's attempts to lure Israel Vazquez into the ring for a first title defence have ended in frustration after the Mexican confirmed his intention to fight at featherweight rather than super-bantamweight when announcing his comeback yesterday.

Dunne won the WBA championship with an 11th round stoppage of Panamanian Ricardo Cordoba in March and his manager Brian Peters singled out Vazquez as their preference for the Dubliner's first defence.

Vazquez's manager Frank Espinoza admitted Peters had been in contact while the Mexican was recovering from the detached retina that kept him out of the sport for 18 months, but at that stage of his rehabilitation there was little point in striking a deal.

The chances now of the two meeting look as slim as they were then after Espinoza insisted yesterday that Vazquez plans to fight at 126lbs for the foreseeable future, with Rafael Marquez or Puerto Rican Juan Manuel Lopez the frontrunners to face him.

Dunne, of course, could move up a weight too, for a non-title bout that may offer both fighters a chance to gauge where they are in respect to the competition.

For Dunne it would be an opportunity to test himself against one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the business without jeopardising his belt, while for Vazquez it would offer an chance for a tune-up ahead of a fourth fight with Marquez or a first with Lopez.

Dunne, who is back training in John Breen's gym in Belfast, does not have to defend his title immediately. He has plenty of experience of fighting at 126 and over, but hasn't done so since December 2005, when he defeated Romanian Marian Leondraliu, a fighter nowhere near the class of Vazquez.

If Dunne does not fancy a trip back to the featherweight division, Peters could try to sound out Marquez or Lopez, both of whom are super bantamweights, but the latter, the WBO title-holder, is in phenomenal form and it may well be too early for Dunne to take on that fight, despite the draw of unifying the belts.

'Juanma' has won all of his 25 pro fights, 23 by knockout, and fought six rounds in just four fights last year, in which he inflicted the first defeats on two experienced opponents, Sergio Manuel Medina (33-0 at the time) and Daniel Ponce de Leon (34-0).

It took him 10 rounds to beat Freddie Roach's veteran Gerry Penalosa last month for the WBO belt he defends against Canadian Olivier Lontchi in June.

Marquez would also represent a huge challenge but after three fights and two defeats in an epic trilogy with Vazquez, he is likely to be solely focused on avenging those losses in a rematch everyone wants to see.

It may also be the case that, despite the optimism in the spring, Dunne's win over Cordoba has not earned him the respect Stateside that he and his management feel it deserved.

Or, as Peters is more likely to argue, the fact the Dubliner came out smiling from a brutal battle with one of South America's brightest prospects may have made some more established contenders wary of a durable and determined Irishman, with the wind at his back.

Either way, the big names do not seem to be queuing up to face him, but there are other options. One is the possibility of approaching Japan's Toshiaki Nishioka, whose third round defeat of Mexican Jhonny Gonzalez in Monterrey just last week was his second successful defence of his WBC title.

The fight would not be as lucrative as a Las Vegas bout with a Latino opponent but could secure Dunne another recognised belt that would afford him more clout in the fight capital.

Another possibility is Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym, the only other man to have beaten Cordoba. He did so in August 2005, when the Panamanian was just 20, and is a respected fighter, but wouldn't put as many bums on seats or as much money in the bank as some of the others.

Dunne's former trainer Roach recently told The Irish Timesthat Penalosa might be an option in the future. The 36-year-old Filipino is a veteran of 63 fights (54-7-2), but if he took Juanma 10 rounds there is still something left in the tank.

There remains a good relationship between Dunne and Roach, one that could conceivably lead to a reunion in, say, the O2 Arena.

Dunne's camp could also reconsider a fight with EBU title holder Rendall Munroe, but relations between Frank Maloney and Peters are strained over who's offered what to who, and when, while Dunne may well feel his memorable win over Cordoba has earned him the right to fight for more than the European title he once held, albeit briefly.

All of which means there are possibilities aplenty for Dunne, but the probabilities, as yet, seem scarce.