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TENSION RISES AT DONAIRE-VAZQUEZ PRE FIGHT PRESSCON By Ronnie Nathanielsz PhilBoxing.com Fri, 03 Feb 2012  San Antonio, Texas - Tension rose between Nonito "The Filipino Flash" Donaire and Wilfredo Vazquez Jr at the pre-fight press conference at the Alamadome here in San Antonio, Thursday with a fiery Donaire having to be escorted by his team from the podium to prevent the fighter from going after the Puerto Rican. It all started when the two fighters posed for the customary face-off as Vazquez turned Donaire's cap around prompting Donaire to react immediately and remove the skull cap that Vazquez was wearing, triggering a heated verbal exchange and shoving match. As handlers from both sides tried to pull the fighters apart, Donaire's trainer Robert Garcia stepped in and put his hand on the body of Vazquez to keep him away at which point the Puerto Rican wanted to pick a fight with Garcia, a former world champion. Trouble has been brewing the past couple of days after Vazquez' wife reportedly tweeted Donaire and in essence called him a coward which Donaire's wife Rachel resented sparking another heated exchange on the social network. When tempers cooled down Garcia told the Manila Standard and ABS-CBN's Dyan Castillejo "Even before he went on on stage to talk he was fired up and when he told me I'm fired up Robert I can't wait to fight. When they faced off that's when it got Nonito totally excited and ready to go." Referring to Vazquez' action in turning Donaire's cap around Garcia said "You don't do something like that. It's being disrespectful. His grabbing his cap and throwing it away. You don't do something like that to a man and Nonito took it personal. I just got in to separate Vazquez and he tried to start something with me too. I think he's just trying to make us think that he's ready and he's going to come in and be a monster against Nonito but that doesn't scare us. We're ready." Garcia said Donaire is "very friendly, very kind always to his opponents but this helps get Nonito more excited, more motivated and he's fired up to come in and do what he has to do." Garcia said Donaire has been "training harder, sparring against bigger guys and doing a great job and I think this is the best Nonito we've ever seen." Donaire's trainer revealed that when Donaire was sparring in preparation for his title defense against Andres Narvaez "we had a couple of guys in the gym belonging this weight division and he hurt them and knocked a couple of them out so we decided we had to bring in the lightweights and even the lightweights that we brought in, Nonito was hitting them pretty good. But they are lightweights so they were taking his punch but he was landing very solid punches. There were times when we had to do less because of all the punches he was landing and the sparring partners couldn't do anything so we had to stop sparring to prevent him from doing too much damage." Donaire's wife Rachel, a taekwondo champion told us after the incident "They need to grow up because they are really looking bad for Puerto Rico. I have friends in Puerto Rico but never saw this kind of unprofessionalism." She said "Nonito is upset because he is very respectful to Wilfredo Vazquez Sr and his son and when you give that kind of respect you don't expect someone to be so rude and professional. It would be different if it was like the (Vic) Darchinyan fight where all they did was talk back to each other but this fight they weren't even doing anything and they come out taking cheap shots and playing little mind games." Rachel pointed out that "You don't touch another fighter at all. This is a very physical game and you don't put your hands on another fighter unless you want a repercussion to your action. They are playing mind games and I don't know what they think its going to do. He's just going to go down faster." Prior to the start of the well-attended press conference Donaire said "I feel really strong. I feel healthy. I feel great, really good." Donaire who looked explosive in his press-public workout on Wednesday switched to the southpaw stance at times during his punch-mitts session with former world champion Morris East. He told us "just in case it may come into play in this fight. I'll have fun with it. It is something I'm still trying to perfect, still trying to master. I'll just keep it all the time in my training." Donaire said that former world champion Jesse James Leija who had predicted the fight will not go beyond five rounds and had worked the punch-mitts with Nonito told him "You are strong and I can see you hit harder than Vazquez." Photo: Superstar three-time world champion Nonito "The Filipino Flash" Donaire (L) and former world champion Wilfredo Vazquez, Jr. have an intense heated exchange during the posedown at the press conference at the Alamodome in San Antonio,Texas, Thursday for their upcoming world title fight, Saturday,Feb. 4, televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing from the Alamodome in San Antonio,Texas. Promoted by Top Rank, in association with Zanfer Promotions, All Star Boxing and Tecate, Donaire battles Vazquez Jr. in this double-header blockbuster event and undefeated WBC World Middleweight Champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. defends his title against Marco Antonio Rubio in the other main event. --- Photo Credit: Chris Farina - Top Rank. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.  |
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