NEWLY-CROWNED International Boxing Federation (IBF) flyweight champion, the US-based Nonito Donaire, is due for a big homecoming.
Sources said Donaire is set to visit the country early next week during which he meets with local fans and boxing officials.
Another Filipino puncher who made waves on the same day Donaire triumphed, IBF minimumweight titlist Florante Condes, was scheduled to plane in last night from Jakarta, where he fashioned out a 12-round split decision over Muhammad Rachman.
Condes will be honored during a parade in the streets of Binangonan, Rizal, today or tomorrow.
Donaire became the country’s newest boxing sensation after scoring a brutal fifth-round knockout of Vic Darchinyan, an Australian of Armenian extraction, over the weekend in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Originally from General Santos City, Donaire now resides in San Leandro, California, and his counter left hook that landed on Darchinyan’s jaw has become a favorite highlight on the Internet among boxing fans – thanks to the website YouTube.
This early, Donaire’s eye-popping win is an early candidate for knockout of the year and even upset of the year for 2007.
The impact of Donaire’s punch was so massive that Darchinyan fell to the floor as though he’d been shot and when he tried to regain his balance, the erstwhile undefeated fighter stumbled like a toddler who had just learned how to walk.
