Nonito Donaire Jr. and his father ended their two-year estrangment Thursday, a spokesman for the bantamweight champion confirmed Friday.
?Nonito and Rachel reached out,? said Ferdinand Piano, and the result was a meeting in the East Bay that included a leisurely dinner at a Japanese restaurant.
?It was shaky at first,? said Piano, Rachel Marcial Donaire?s cousin, who was part of the delegation that trekked from San Mateo County to Alameda County to make peace.
What Senior apparently wanted to hear was an apology for insinuations that he had glommed onto as much as $80,000 of the boxer?s assets. Although Jun stressed that he had never accused his father of that, he apologized just the same, and that soothed the father.
“That was all that I asked from them,? Donaire Sr. said, in a conversation with Filipino writer and politician Manny Pinol. ?Correct the story that I stole money from them. And they corrected it and apologized. . . . Now, I can walk and face people again with my head up high.”
So can his son. Two major impediments to happiness and success have been surmounted with Donaire?s sensational stoppage of Fernando Montiel on Feb. 19, which gave his career the upward trajectory he merits, and now this peace with his father, who trained his son to a world-class level until the son removed him as trainer in November 2008.
The estrangement came in the aftermath of Jun?s relatively shaky flyweight title defense against Moruti Mthalane. Rachel and Nonito had been married only weeks earlier, and Rachel has taken on several managerial roles that the father had previously controlled.
Jun and Rachel tried to reach out in the Philippines in spring 2009 as Jun trained for his fourth-round stoppage of Raul Martinez, but the father seemed intractable, notably when they left a seat for him at ringside that went unused.
One imagines there will still be friction, but there is no longer an impasse. Jun has his family back There were tears and hugs at the Thursday function, and the get-together lasted several hours.
The father doesn?t expect to be reinstated as trainer, and he won?t be, but wouldn?t it be nice if his superlative skills as a cutman could be part of the corner?
