“What should Nonito do with his hair for the fight?” filipinoflash.com asked Donaire fans. I didn’t deign to answer at the time, but I hope it isn’t too late to vote for the spikes.
The fight is Saturday against heavy-hitting but lightly regarded Panamanian Rafael Concepcion (13-3-1, 8 knockouts) at the Hard Rock on a pay per view telecast billed as “Pinoy Power 2” and produced by Top Rank. That’s Donaire’s promoter, following up on the success of Donaire’s impressive victory over Raul Martinez before 17,000 at Araneta Coliseum near Manila in April. A belt, the WBA superflyweight interim title, is at stake for Donaire (115 pounds), but Concepcion blew his shot at the title by weighing in at 119.5. Although Saturday’s sub-main between featherweight champion Steven Luevano and menacing Filipino Bernabe Concepcion looks interesting, just as Brian Viloria-Ulises Solis did at Araneta, Nonito is again the main attraction.
And he has an opportunity to prove he’s that attractive.
Filipinos already think so. They find “The Filipino Flash” a bit too flashy. Whereas Americans see Donaire as more bland than he is. He needs to reverse those images, to become flashy to Americans and bland to Filipinos.
His appearance, which usually revolves around an ensemble in red, is more than an afterthought for Team Donaire. Even the shoes he’ll wear Saturday are not only red-tinged but hand-painted (by examiner.com’s own Dennis dSource Guillermo). Donaire will be wearing yellow trunks this time though, to honor the late president of the Philippines, Corazon Aquino, as well he should. As for the hair, he’s been wearing caps and bandannas in recent photo poses, so we don’t know whether the spikes and the pig shave are losing out to the usual trim Nonito Senior ring look that honors his estranged father.
Junior’s image in the Philippines receives ample attention, although some of it is negative and tabloidy – and not just where his rift with Senior is concerned. While the attention Donaire receives may never reach Pacquiao level, he is far eclipsing everyone else in an increasingly crowded boxing pantheon. He even received a command invitation to visit Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in May.
It’s America that needs to discover Donaire. There’s some resistance that borders on prejudice. He is only beginning to get past that. “When I tried to sign with managers in the past,” he said last week, “I was told that Filipinos were not marketable. I was told that Filipino fighters couldn’t break and egg. . . .Manny has helped change all of that.”
Donaire (21-1, 14 knockouts) is also in good position to rectify the situation in the near future. He’s got the Top Rank showcase (although the Roy Jones Jr.-Jeff Lacy bout Saturday may steal some of the potential thunder). He’s got the boxing ability. He’s got the smile. He’s got the provocative wife.
And, he might have the hair. It was spiky when I saw him in July, and, well, how can we put this without sounding like a hairdresser: He is better looking than he gets credit for, and a full-looking head of hair makes a difference when you’re 26.
He doesn’t have that touching, plaintive quality that makes everyone love Pacquiao. But the quality that makes Rachel Donaire love Donaire needs to be exploited here the way it’s been exploited in the Philippines.
More info: “Pinoy Power 2,” produced and distributed by Top Rank will air live on pay-per-view (Ch. 801 on Bay Area Comcast) beginning at 6 p.m. PDT, with a suggested retail price of $34.95. It will be available in HD-TV for those viewers who can receive HD. The TV portion will feature junior welterweight Anthony Peterson against Luis Arcero, Filipino welterweight Mark Melligen against Mexico’s Michael Rosales, the Luevano-Bernabe Concepcion fight, and finally Donaire vs. Rafael Concepcion.
