Nonito Donaire will be a well-oiled machine by the time he defends his IBF flyweight crown against Hussein Hussein in Dubai on April 4.
Two months before his second title defense, the 25-year-old Filipino has started pounding the road and vowed to begin working out at the famous ALA Gym in Cebu in the next few days.
Donaire, who packs a knockout punch probably no one in his class could handle, yesterday told mediamen he plans to fly to Dubai, an Arab emirate, two weeks before the fight.
“I want to be there early so I could acclimatize. I want to be in my best shape for this fight,” said Donaire, who has the amiable Gary Shaw as promoter and his father, Nonito Sr., as trainer.
“I can set up a makeshift tent for him in the middle of the desert just to give him the feel of being there,” said Shaw, who dreams of making Donaire the first Filipino to unify all titles in his class.
“But I’m superstitious. I never look farther ahead of a fight that’s up next for my boxer,” said Shaw, who promoted Manny Pacquiao fights against Erik Morales and Hector Velasquez in the US.
Donaire said he weighs around 128 to 130 lbs at the moment, but sees no problem making the 112 lb limit on the eve of the fight to be promoted by Third Force under Noli Eala.
Donaire seemed so confident with his weight that he feasted on shrimp, pinakbet, squid, steamed fish and rice over lunch with Shaw, his father-trainer and Eala.
“I feel good. In fact, I feel better than when I was preparing for my fight against (Luis) Maldonado,” said Donaire of his first title defense last December, winning via an eighth-round knockout.
Donaire said he was around 140 lbs when he started training for the Maldonado bout, adding that he had to lose “so many pounds in a month” heading for that fight in Connecticut.
Nonito Sr. said training will be done like before, not focusing too much on sparring, but instead on the mitts where in his book boxers truly develop their speed and technique.
“We don’t spend as many rounds in sparring because we do over 200 rounds with the mitts. We use sparring only for sharpening. But the speed, we get it by working on the mitts,” said the trainer.
