IT took Nonito Donaire nine rounds to click into gear and stop Vic Darchinyan last weekend.
The Filipino is trying to prove once again he’s a force to be reckoned with after Guillermo Rigondeux snapped his lengthy unbeaten streak in April.
Things didn’t go to plan for Donaire as he took on the Australian Armenian Darchinyan a second time, and when we spoke he was preparing to fly from San Antonio to San Francisco where doctors were going to assess damage to his cheek and eye.
Ultimately, however, Donaire got the job done ? even if he was not wholly satisfied with it.
How do you feel looking back on Saturday night?
My face is sore but that’s pretty much it [physically]. We did the job but it wasn’t what we worked on. When we were in the gym we were trying to box ? with my father ? and move more but I still have this tendency of mine to want to counter without the fear of getting hit and just to throw my punches.
So in the early rounds, until the ninth round, the only reason I was getting hit was my arms were thinking of staying in the pocket and throwing punches but my legs, that we worked on in the gym, wanted to move away.
So two halves of my body were fighting each other.
Because I saw punches coming at me and I know I could have gotten away from them but I didn’t.
We worked on boxing, but my muscles had memorised staying in the pocket and throwing that hook. Before the ninth round I thought, ‘I might lose this fight,’ and I just listened to my corner and threw my punches. I was throwing the jab more, throwing the right hand more, I was moving and I was not getting hit and that’s how I should have fought from the beginning. But I had to stop listening to my body to give up and listen to me in order to perform that way.
So you weren’t satisfied…
Not until the eighth round. In the ninth round I was getting more towards what I should have done, which was box and move and not getting hit and being slick and that is why I was able to do what I did. I was confusing him with my movement and I wasn’t letting him in with my straight right hand; that’s a little image of what we worked on. Me and my father worked on a lot more so hopefully I will be able to fight that way in the future knowing we will have more time to work on it.
Did you every feel the fight slipping away?
Oh yeah. I felt like things I was doing… I couldn’t let go, my mind was arguing with my body, with my arms and legs and I would see things ? like when you throw the straight or overhand I would step back. What I should have done was to come out with combinations but instead I would stare and then throw that right hand and he was able see it, it was not like in the gym where I would step and throw it and ‘boom, boom’ and come back. That was the plan and I didn’t do it. That was a mistake that I made because I wanted to go out there for a knockout. It wasn’t that I didn’t listen, it was that my body just wouldn’t co-operate with me until the ninth round when I took control and did my stuff.
With Darchinyan, you impressively dispatched him in 2007 setting standards that were always going to be hard to emulate. Was it a no-win fight?
Not quite. If you look at the fight in 2007 it was still a close fight. Some people had me losing that fight, I was just boxing well and the same Darchinyan [from 2007] would have gone early on Saturday but the one who came in tonight was different. They studied me well for this fight because every time he threw an overhand he ducked down and didn’t get hit by the left hook and that’s what I realised and saw in the ninth round. Before he threw it with his chin up and every time I would have caught him with that hook but he learned from his mistakes and tried to be patient but ultimately his aggression still got the best of him.
You stopped Darchinyan again. He’s had nearly 50 fights so it’s still a good result, isn’t it?
Ultimately, at the end of it, a victory is a victory but still, not at the price I paid. I shouldn’t be going to the hospital. I shouldn’t be doing that. I should have… If I fought the way that we had planned there shouldn’t be any problem. I should have been able to box well and I should have been victorious in that way, in an easy way rather than a difficult way to realise I needed to do that. Then again, it’s an experience that my body was able to realise in the ninth round and it will remember that type of fight.
You’ve reconciled with your father, have a young son, are you still focused on boxing?
I am. I want to see myself box the way I boxed 10 years ago and I want to fight the best out there. I think that with my new style that we’re trying to bring out of me, because I know the speed and definitely power is there, if I can bring out that speed and style we’ve been working on I think that I can beat anybody out there.
What happens next?
We’re just going to relax and heal up. We’re going to see what’s up with my eye and cheek but I want to be in the ring and ready for a fight, fighting the way I want to fight, not how I’ve been fighting over the years but how I fight. I want to fight the way I used to fight which is to be fast and sharp.
It was your featherweight debut. How did it feel in that division?
I felt good. My leg was okay this time. I felt good. Featherweight is definitely something I might stay in because I feel good in it.
So, wait for the doctor’s report and take it from there?
That’s pretty much it. We will wait to see what the doctor says but I know I will be going back as soon as I am able.
Your countryman, Manny Pacquiao, faces Brandon Rios on November 23. How do you see that bout going?
I think that Pacquiao is still too fast and strong. Most likely Pacquiao will get the best out of Rios who is a tough guy. If they end up pushing Pacquiao and being right there in front of him that’s Rios’s game but it depends on how Pacquiao fights.
Will the Juan Manuel Marquez knockout Manny suffered come into play?
I think it will make him box more knowing he got hit and he doesn’t want to get hit that way again. When he boxes, he’s better that way.
