Nonito Donaire was on the 6 o?clock news Monday on the San Francisco ABC television affiliate KGO (Ch. 7), another telling sign of his burgeoning visibility in Bay Area media.
As for visibility beyond, America has seen Donaire twice on HBO in the past couple of days. He appears for about 45 seconds during a 10-minute feature about metabolism guru Victor Conte on ?RealSports With Bryant Gumbel.? He appeared for about 15 seconds in the ring Saturday after Brandon Rios? stirring comeback victory by knockout over Miguel Acosta.
So, although I haven?t gotten together with Donaire since his sensational victory Feb. 19 over Fernando Montiel, he?s got a lot of presence these days.
I didn?t really learn anything new from the 30-second bit on Channel 7, which centered on efforts to promote Donaire?s next fight in the Bay Area, conceivably against WBA bantamweight champion Anselmo Moreno. Donaire had appeared for four minutes on the less-watched afternoon program 7 Live with Brian ?Not a Genuine Black Man? Copeland a couple of hours before the newscast?s sports segment, anchored by Larry ?Aloha Means Goodbye? Beil.
But Donaire?s presence in the Conte and Rios camps is rather provocative. Conte is best known for his expertise in masking steroids. He spent some time in prison as a result and although he presumably is reformed, he is a revlied figure in the sports world, except among athletes themselves.
Until Saturday, Rios was best known for leading a Manny Pacquiao jeering section in Antonio Margarito?s camp for Manny?s fight last fall. Another reason to dislike Rios was that he is estranged from Victor Ortiz, the personable junior welterweight contender whom Rios grew up alongside in Garden City, Kan., and trained alongside in Oxnard.
The trainer in Oxnard, of course, is Robert Garcia, who still trains Rios there, though no longer Ortiz, and is also the chief second in Donaire?s corner. Garcia has refined Rios, but Rios is still mainly a slugger, and I tend to root against sluggers.
So, although I was friendly with the presumably reformed Conte when I met him last November at a Donaire publicity function at the Undisputed Gym in San Carlos, and even though I?ve had some good talks with Garcia at Undisputed, I found myself rooting against Rios in his WBC welterweight title challenge and was feeling pretty smug about it when Acosta won the first five rounds.
But Rios kept on coming and landed his vaunted left hook in the sixth, shortly before decking Acosta with a stiff jab. Acosta may have won the seventh, but he was clearly the worse for wear by then, and Rios simply overwhelmed him for an eighth-round knockdown before finishing the job in the 10th.
So there was Donaire ringside in the aftermath, and I?m thinking, if he likes this guy there?s no reason why I can?t like Rios — and Ortiz, and Garcia and Conte and even Margarito — without regard to relationships with Pacquiao and even without regard to my relationship with Donaire.
I hope Donaire?s estranged father is noticing these reasons to believe there is no commutative property of animosity in his son?s world. The alliances in boxing are very open and very flexible, and Nonito Sr. owes it to himself to be a central figure in the current celebration of his son?s achievements and talent.
