On Saturday night at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York, Nonito Donaire defends his WBC and WBO bantamweight titles against Omar Narvaez. Eight long months have passed since we last saw the ?Filipino Flash? who was the talk of the boxing industry after stopping Fernando Montiel on February 19th. What took place between then and now seemed to stretch on forever.
First, Donaire was involved in a tug-of-war for his services between Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions and was bogged down in litigation as the two companies did battle. Finally, he re-upped with Top Rank (with whom he had an existing promotional contract). It was a dispute that became very public and personal between the factions. Worst of all, any momentum Donaire had built ground to a halt.
?It needed to happen,? he told Maxboxing last week. ?It needed to happen. There?s no regrets on my part. It was something that I truly believed in. It needed to happen and now, I?ve got a great team behind me and now, we?re looking to map out our game plan to who I want to fight and stuff like that and now, I?m here and fighting. So everything?s great.?
After his scintillating outing in February, Top Rank had early plans to stage a Donaire bout in late May on HBO but as it was announced that he was jumping ship, that?s when the mud started being flung from all directions. Donaire?s wife, Rachel, was in the center of much of this and she caused quite a stir when she commented on how Manny Pacquiao?s wife, Jinky, dressed. In response, Bob Arum famously counterpunched that Mrs. Pacquiao dressed like a true lady and didn?t get all ?tarted up.?
Arum admits, ?It went out of control, which is something I should know with all my experience, is that when these incidents occur, if you carry on the battle through the media, it?s self-defeating.? The outspoken promoter eventually made amends to Donaire?s wife for his comments. They made it clear; what happened in the past is just that- in the past. ?Absolutely, absolutely, and she was very understandable and I apologized for what I said to her which I sincerely meant and she knows and [Donaire] knows that we?re going to make a huge effort to make him the big star that he should be. And remember, when we were handling him, originally, until his signature fight with Montiel, it was very, very difficult. We were doing everything on our own dime. So with smaller guys, that?s what you gotta do and then, they have a huge victory in a big fight on a premium network and then you?re off to the races.?
