Before his title winning performance this summer against Vic Darchinyan, Nonito Donaire was basically an unknown prospect that many thought was being fed to the ferocious, hard-punching Darchinyan. And even worse than that, he felt he was a fighter of Filipino blood that was ignored by his own people.
But with one well-timed left hook in the fifth round of his bout with Darchinyan, he would not only capture the IBF flyweight title, but respect and recognition from those back home.
“It’s an awesome feeling, I mean everyone?s been giving me a lot of respect and everything,” Donaire would tell Maxboxing earlier this week. “Especially coming up with a win from Darchinyan. Darchinyan’s up there. So just the attention of it all and just the respect people are giving you and the opportunities that you have, it’s great. You can never get used to it.”
Back in Sacramento in August, near his hometown of San Leandro, California, Donaire was part of the Filipino broadcast team that covered the World Cup boxing series between the Philippines and Mexico. The partisan crowd inside the Arco Arena greeted him as a conquering hero. He had arrived.
But it wasn’t always that way. It wasn’t too long ago that he felt he was shunned by his countrymen.
“In the beginning, yeah,” he would say. “They weren’t giving me the respect and the reason for it is they had never seen me, they never really saw me fight. They only read about me but they didn’t see me. I wasn’t fighting on TV or always talked about. I was always the quiet one, where I win the fight, I go home, and I don’t stay around for interviews and stuff like that.
“And people didn’t really see me and they had a lot of doubts knowing it was Darchinyan that I was going against.”
But like one General Douglas MacArthur, he would return to the Philippines, as he trained for this Saturday night?s bout against Luis Maldonado (Showtime 9 pm ET/PT) in the country he was born in.
“It was great, it’s like you’re something big,” he would say of the reception he received. “Everything I needed, the sparring partners were already lined up for me to go and visit anytime. It was special treatment from the people and I gotta thank the ALA Gym for that in Cebu. They welcomed us really well.”
Because of Manny Pacquiao and his success, there has been a boxing boom in the country. Those who attain success not only earn celebrity status, but can become national treasures. Dinners are hosted in your honor, politicians line up for your endorsement and corporations can’t wait to throw money at you.
But Donaire says this excursion was a business trip.
“We weren’t really going out there for meetings and stuff like that. Some people would come into the gym and we’d meet them and hand shake, but we weren’t really having meetings and talking about something,” Donaire insisted. “There were some that did come up to us and we talked or were invited to dinner, but that’s about it.”
So now after months of adulation being heaped upon him, he gets back to the task at hand. Oftentimes, making the first title defense can be the trickiest to navigate. Unlike his appointment with Darchinyan, he’s no longer an unknown dark horse, but the champion in somebody else’s crosshairs.
“Yeah, but usually guys rise and get better after they win the title and everything,” counters his manager, Cameron Dunkin, who admits that focus – or lack thereof – can become a problem for young fighters suddenly thrust into the limelight. “Every once in A while you get a guy who lets it all get into his head and then he looks terrible. So you always have that concern. So I’ve been talking to Nonito, I talked to him a long time today. I’m just trying to keep him level-headed and focused.
“He needs a great performance – not a good one ? he needs a great performance to make a statement.?
Dunkin, who went against conventional wisdom by putting Donaire in against Darchinyan, believes his fighter has ‘it’.
“Listen, he can punch, he can box, he’s got good power. We’ve had him in the gym sparring with Steven Luevano, Zahir Raheem and Joan Guzman, just great fighters and they all just come out and go, ‘Oh, this guy?s special. He’s not good, he’s special,’ So I know I really had something and I just really felt comfortable that he was going to pull the big upset and he did.”
The 25-year old Donaire, whose moniker is ‘the Filipino Flash’ for his aggressive style – one which is predicated on speed – swears his focus has not waned.
“I’ve trained as hard as I did before,” he says. “I’ve sparred a lot more than when I fought Darchinyan. But I’m used to fighting whoever it is I’m in the ring with, even if I didn’t know their styles or anything like that. I’m so used to fighting that way, anyways, because of the way I was brought up professionally. Nobody took care of me. So it’s just another person in the ring with me and I want to do my best and take care of it. We really trained for it.”
But with recognition comes pressure. And the truth is, everyone loves a winner, but they aren’t so quick to embrace those who lose – just ask Rey Bautista, who was blown out in one round by Daniel Ponce De Leon that night in Sacramento. His bandwagon couldn’t have cleared out any faster, it seems.
“Y’know, when I was training, the way they supported me was another part of my motivation because I guess that’s how Pacquiao becomes braver because he doesn’t want to lose that,” Donaire would state. “A part of me wants to keep that and it’s a motivation for me and sometimes when you think about it, it can be pressure.
“When you’re in there, you just do your thing. But when you need to pull out something to motivate you, you think about that.”
REMATCH
On February 1st in Cebu, Darchinyan is scheduled to face Z Gorres for the mandatory spot in the IBF. Gary Shaw, who promotes both Donaire and Darchinyan, believes a rematch between the two is a very good possibility for 2008.
“Yes, absolutely. Look, he gave Donaire the shot, he didn’t have to give him the shot. Nonito understands that. Nonito’s very confident that he can beat Darchinyan again. Darchinyan feels it was a freak happening, which makes for a great rematch,” says the promoter. “But there are other fights out there for both of them, really good fights out there. Cristian Mijares, Jorge Arce, there’s fights out there for both of them.”
NO SUBS, NEEDED
I’m happy that the rematch between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez was the one that was made for March 15th. It’s the right time and place for that fight to occur.
With this bout, along with Vazquez-Marquez III and Diaz-Katsidis slated to take place in the first quarter of 2008, it looks like the business of boxing is doing it’s best to ensure that the momentum they created in the past few months will carry on.
Speaking of Vazquez-Marquez, I’ve been told that the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, is not out of the running for this fight. I know that the organizers of this event have solid offers from Mexico, but the bottom line is that neither Vazquez or Marquez have fought south of the border in years.
BUZZKILL
So with Kermit Cintron being ruled out of facing Paul Williams in February 2nd, the race is now on to find a suitable replacement to face ‘The Punisher’.
Word is that Zab Judah, Carlos Quintana and Ricardo Mayorga have been prominently mentioned. Just my opinion, no way Don King lets Mayorga anywhere near Williams and Quintana-Williams has the makings of a snoozer. Judah, because of his name value, could be the best bet here.
And I hear that HBO is really pushing for Chris Arreola to face David Tua. That’s a classic crossroads face off.
MARCH MADNESS
Bob Arum is quoted in the Puerto Rican press as saying that if Cotto can’t get a Floyd Mayweather or Oscar De La Hoya in his next bout, the plan is to stage a March doubleheader that will pit Cotto against Joshua Clottey – should he beat Shamone Alvarez in a few weeks – and Antonio Margarito to face Jose Luis Castillo. And then have Cotto and Margarito face each other in June.
X-mas could be coming early for ‘the Tijuana Tornado’.
