Nonito Donaire might not be throwing southpaw for a while, I confirmed Sunday via telephone, about 24 hours after he re-injured his vaunted left hand in his spectacular victory over Raul Martinez in the Philippines.
He didn?t want to tell me about the injury, much less compare it to the fractures he had sustained in his previous two fights. ?I kind of hurt my hand a little bit,? Donaire finally admitted, ?but I knew I could hop in and catch him with it, and I did catch him with it the one-two.?
You can catch Manny Pacquiao in San Francisco on Tuesday for Filipino Heritage Night at the Giants? game. He will throw out the first pitch, but from which side of the mound (boxes: left; throws darts: right) we don?t know.
I had thought Donaire, of San Leandro, might return to the Bay Area in time for the ballgame, but he will be returning instead Tuesday to his humble Philippines roots in Bohol, where a parade will honor him.
My world-view is still locked on the Philippines after watching the victories by Donaire and new IBF light flyweight champion Brian Viloria on pay-per-view, and then receiving the follow-up call from Donaire and his wife Rachel. A similar call 10 days before the fight, you may recall, confirmed his expectation of a fight much like what took place; that his father would not attend; and that he had contingency plans if a hand injury ensued. Apparently it did.
The Donaires will be in the Philippines for another week, showing friends and relatives Nonito?s native country beyond Manila. He lived in the Philippines as a child before moving to the Bay Area. ?He wants to show our friends and my family his house, no electricity, an outhouse, on stilts,? Rachel said. ?Show people the Philippines is beautiful.?
Donaire would seem to many Filipinos to be more in his element in San Francisco, compared to Pacquiao, who has managed to retain his peasant aura as the most important fighter in the sport now and one of the most magnetic of all time. But their stature in the sport is becoming more similar. Donaire is probably only two more victories from cracking the pound-for-pound top 10.
First up, as he moves from 112 pounds to 115? ?From what Cameron (manager Cameron Dunkin) has been telling me, it would be Carita Lopez,? Donaire said. That would give Nonito the WBO super-flyweight title Lopez won March 28 in a box-off with Pramuansak Posuwan, and might give him leverage for a rematch with Vic Darchinyan. More likely, he?ll then move up 118 soon to fight Fernando Montiel, who, like Lopez, was among the opponents lined up for Donaire?s spring fight before Martinez filled the bill.
By the time Donaire?s fight moved from March to April, one of the hottest months of the year, the prospect of jetting across the Pacific to take it in became less appealing. Martinez said Manila?s humidity was ?10 times worse? than back home in San Antonio. Still, that parade in Bohol sounds more appealing than dodging hordes of Pac-Nuts at the erstwhile Pac Bell Park.
Your SF Boxing Examiner can?t even make it to the ballgame. I did help ensure that philboxing.com Bay Area correspondent Hermie Rivera will be at AT&T Park, and my examiner.com Bay Area colleague Claire Reclosado should be there, too. It?s becoming a tough ticket, so I?m glad to be out of the way since I got closer to Pacquiao last November in Los Angeles than I can possibly hope to get Tuesday, even with Hermie leading me around.
The fact is that I can?t afford to miss my night school class Tuesday. When I get home and catch up on the Pacquiao festivities, I?ll link y?all up to Claire and probably Hermie, too.
I hope one of them will score me the Manny bobble-head doll. It?s an all-timer.
