When Manny Pacquiao fights, the Philippines grind to a halt. Business ceases to get done. Kids clear the streets and huddle around a TV set to see PacMan do his thing in the ring. Even the Muslim guerrilla bands put down their weapons and concentrate on Pacquiao when he gloves up.
Filipino-born Nonito Donaire doesn’t have the power to provoke peace on that level, but the bantamweight champion, who fights unheralded Argentine Omar Narvaez on Saturday at Madison Square Garden’s Theater arena, is edging closer to the Congressman from Sarangani Province on pundits’ pound-for-pound lists, and as a Filipino icon.
“I was told things shut down, everyone watches, but maybe not the rebels,” said Donaire, 28, a San Leandro, Calif., resident who moved from the Philippines when he was 10. “My ratings there are good, but not Pacquiao levels.”
