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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Donaire ready for battle

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FORMER five-division world champion Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire is ready for battle against WBO’s No.1-ranked super bantamweight Cesar Juarez when they clash in Puerto Rico on Saturday, saying it doesn’t matter whether it’s for the world title as a result of the WBO stripping champion Guillermo Rigondeaux of his crown for inactivity, or the international title held by Juarez.

Donaire, who arrived with his team in San Juan, Puerto Rico over the weekend, immediately buckled down to keeping the momentum of his  high-level training schedule by putting in a solid workout under the watchful eyes of his father Dodong.

“The Filipino Flash” Nonito Donaire

The elder Donaire earlier told The New Standard/boxingmirror.com that it was the best training camp in his son’s career and he could not ask for anything more.

Donaire’s wife Rachel said his husband was “amazing” during training, where he sparred with Fidel Navarette and a certain Bowen, who were always pushing the Filipino in 10-round sessions and never backing off. Donaire hurt them at times, but backed off when he sensed they were in trouble.

After his workout, Donaire was quoted by boxingscene.com as saying: “My focus is to be back on top. I am focused for what I must do in the ring. That’s why this fight  in Puerto Rico is so important for me and my career.”

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The 2012 Fighter of the Year suffered a setback when he dropped a unanimous 12-round decision to Rigondeaux despite dropping the undefeated champion in the 10th round. He later moved up in weight to win the WBA featherweight title  from Simpiwe Vetyeka of South Africa, but lost his WBO crown in a crushing sixth-round knockout to the much bigger and stronger Nicholas “The Axe Man” Walters of Jamaica.

However, Donaire came back with back-to-back, second-round TKO victories to win the North  American Boxing Federation super bantamweight title against William Prado of Brazil and then followed it up also with a second-round TKO over  former European bantamweight champion Anthoy Settoul of France, which set the stage for the Juarez showdown.

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is hoping that the WBO would reject the appeal of Rigondeaux before Donaire steps into the ring, but WBO Asia Pacific head Leon Panoncillo said that the organization’s lawyers were studying the appeal and that they don’t want to rush a decision.

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