With the help of events such as Pinoy Power, Nonito Donaire Jr., definitely one of the most talented fighters in the game, has slowly begun to gain the recognition that he has long deserved after his career-defining victory over Vic Darchinyan. For his stature to skyrocket, all he needs now is to secure a fight against another top notch opponent, which so far has been a difficult task for The Filipino Flash. It seems like whenever he’s about to catch a break in his career, another obstacle comes along to hinder any momentum. It’s as if he’s got an albatross hanging around his neck.
Donaire just might be the most polarizing figure in Philippine boxing today. He’s the Filipino version of Oscar De La Hoya. Most Filipinos either hate him or love him. Although born in the Philippines, many of his countrymen don’t consider him “Filipino” enough, mainly because he grew up in America, and some perceive him to be lacking the “traditional” Filipino values.
Now his dad’s recent interview with Dennis Guillermo of Examiner.com provided more ammo for Nonito’s critics as the elder Donaire let out all the frustrations and disappointments he had for his son. In the interview, Nonito’s dad basically lambasted his son’s wife, calling her a golddigger and portraying Nonito as an ungrateful son.
The harsh words from Donaire Sr. about the couple in fact are so damaging that the criticisms mentioned above may not have been the worst of them all. In fact, there were things that might have been better left unsaid as they may be deemed too personal by many people. Below are a couple of quotes from the interview.
When asked what message he wanted to tell his son.
“I want to talk to him and ask him why he seems like he is so mad at our family as if we all have some disease that he is afraid of. Even his very own man, think about it Dennis, his mom that loves him so much, how it feels for a mom to hug her own child, what did he say? He just hugged her and told her to be thankful for the $500 he gave her. Is that how a son acts? Just because he gave $500 is that a big deal to him already?”
On whether Nonito has provided support for his side of the family.
“Since he married that girl… before he used to give his mom $500 a month. When they got married, that was cut off and Rachel was saying all kinds of things. Another painful thing is when he fought in the Philippines, it was his mom’s birthday. They (Rachel’s camp) gave her rules and regulations that she can’t ask for a shirt, she can’t ask for tickets and that she can’t stand from her seat when they declare Nonito the champion because their personal security won’t allow you to climb the ring. That’s why when I read that, I really felt bad for my wife. She herself raised her son. We supported him from the amateurs til’ he became a world champion and then that’s the thanks you get?
And another thing.. she was called by GMA after Jr.’s win for an interview and then Rachel’s mom told her “Where are you going? You know the rules right?” Imagine what pain a mother would feel being treated that way who didn’t do anything wrong to them and all she wanted was to answer the interview by GMA.”
Obviously, the tension between both camps has not improved and worse than previously thought. The overwhelming perception was probably that the problems existed only between Donaire Sr. and the couple, but as we found out, Nonito has been estranged from his whole side of the family.
The level of animosity between both sides are so severe that Donaire Sr. finally reached a point, where he could no longer stay quiet and felt the need to set things straight while defending his family from the criticisms that was supposedly thrown at them by the other side.
Sometimes bad publicity can be beneficial since it’s better than no publicity at all, but that may not apply in this situation because Nonito had not yet fully gained the total support of the Filipino boxing fans. Now it’s probably going to take some time to build up his image again since the interview with Donaire Sr. only affirms the criticisms of him supposedly being arrogant and lacking ‘Filipino” values.
But to be fair, we must wait to hear from Nonito and Rachel regarding elder Donaire’s tirade before passing judgment on the couple. There are always two sides to a story and personal biases can affect a certain person’s point of view. Also, many people I’ve met that have gotten the chance to know Nonito always had positive opinions of him.
I’ve met Nonito a couple of times and always found him to be very approachable and accommodating to everybody specially his fans. But it will be hard for many to not look at Nonito in a different way after hearing his father’s statements. Although one must try to put this issue in perspective and try not to let personal biases affect our point of view. Nonito is not the first one to have problems with family members and unfortunately his situation might not be too uncommon.
Although Nonito’s situation with his family can serve a reminder to today’s athletes to always remember where they came from and how they got there. As Jose Rizal, Philippines’ national hero once said. “He who does not know how to look back at where he came from will never get to his destination.”
