CEBU CITY, Philippines ? It all looked nice and easy, fast and furious, but Nonito Donaire Jr. wasn?t actually flawless inside the ring against Zsolt Bedak Saturday evening at the packed Cebu City Sports Center.
Donaire decked the 2004 Olympian from Hungary three times in three rounds. Referee Russell Mora didn?t want the mismatch to last any longer, halting the fight in the 2:44 mark of the third.
The boxing-crazy Cebuano crowd of over 20,000 rejoiced after the TKO win, and found more reason to cheer when Donaire took the microphone inside the ring, and spoke in fluent Visayan.
Inside his dressing room, which had American bodyguards standing by the door, Donaire sat on a plastic chair and faced a dozen reporters throwing questions at him in three different languages.
Donaire said he?ll rest awhile but admitted that there were mistakes on his part.
?We?re just going to get some rest, look into the fight and study, and get rid of the flaws and mistakes we made in this fight,? said Donaire, the WBO championship belt hanging from his shoulder. Sportshub ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1
?Flaws in less than three rounds in the ring?? The STAR asked.
?Oh yeah,? Donaire replied.
?I shouldn?t have got hit with those punches. He hit me pretty good with one of those overhand punches that landed. Given that if it was a different fighter it would have been dangerous for me,? he said.
Donaire used a pretty good jab, his vicious left hooks and some uppercuts to send Bedak, who had vowed to take the fight to Donaire, back to the Waterfront Hotel early.
?I want to make sure that doesn?t happen against an elite fighter. I expected that if he fought me it would end pretty soon,? said Donaire.
?That?s what happened. We expected him to run and tire out in the fourth or fifth rounds and take him there. But he chose to fight. I was pretty patient but I had no choice,? he said.
Bedak earned the respect of Donaire and the crowd that knows its boxing for choosing to fight. The 32-year-old Hungarian did not contest the stoppage and will fly out of the country with a 25-2 record.
Still inside his dressing room, Donaire challenged the elite fighters in the 122-pound division, including IBF and WBA king Carl Frampton of Great Britain, WBC champ Hugo Ruiz of Mexico, WBO Youth champion Jesus Magdaleno, also of Mexican roots, and of course, the former champion and Donaire?s tormentor from Cuba in Guillermo Rigondeaux.
?We?re not sitting on this throne for a long time fighting the B and C class. We want to fight the elite guys,? said Donaire, now 37-3 with 24 knockouts.
There?s no timetable for the Filipino Flash, but he doesn?t have all the time in the world as well. He will be 34 by year?s end and may have just a couple or a few more years left as a fighter.
Up next from Cebu is a trip with his family to beautiful Bohol, where he was born on Nov. 16, 1982.
?I?m just going to enjoy the place where I was born,? he said.
He said it?s up to his promoter, Top Rank, which put up the successful card Saturday with ALA Promotions and giant network ABS-CBN, to make things happen.
But he wants to fight the best.
?It doesn?t matter (who among them). Champions. The best out there. If it?s Frampton, if it?s Rigondeaux, if it?s Ruiz. If it?s anybody that feels that they?re better than me, come inside the ring,? he said.
?I?m waiting for you,? Donaire added.
