Tag: nonito donaire

Lost amid the hoopla of the Terence Crawford-Errol Spence Jr. matchup is a remarkable moment in boxing.

Nonito Donaire, the former four-division titleholder, will be fighting Alexandro Santiago for another belt at 40 years old on the Crawford-Spence pay-per-view card Saturday night at T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas.

Too much, too late for the great Filipino-American? Don’t count on it.

Donaire (42-7, 28 KOs) has been written off multiple times over his two-decade career only to surprise his opponents and the boxing world by emerging victorious in big fights.

“The Filipino Flash” is coming off perhaps his most brutal setback, a second-round knockout in his rematch with Naoya “The Monster” Inoue in June of last year. That seemed to signal the end of a first-ballot Hall of Fame career.

However, Donaire had other ideas. He still believes he has another comeback in him.

“I gambled in my last fight, and sometimes you win, sometimes you lose,” he said. “Going into this fight, I just have to show everyone that I’ve still got it. I’m doing it for me now and to show what I’m capable of. I love the sport and I’m grateful that I’m getting the opportunity.

“The power at this age is so much more potent. I put so much more into it. Not just emotion and experience, but I put every essence of a man into this.”

Donaire burst upon the international scene when he knocked out then-112-pound champ Vic Darchinyan with an inhuman left hook way back in 2007, giving him the first of the nine major world titles he would ultimately win.

He had his best year in 2012, when he defeated Wilfredo Vazquez Jr., Jeffrey Mathebula, Toshiaki Nishioka and Jorge Arce to become Fighter of the Year.

Then came his first loss since his second professional fight, a unanimous decision against boxing wizard Guillermo Rigondeaux at 122 pounds in 2013 that some believed exposed Donaire’s technical limitations. He won a 126-pound title two fights later only to lose it by knock out to then-unbeaten Nicholas Walters, his first stoppage loss.

Donaire’s response? He moved back down to 122, won another title and then lost it to Jessie Magdaleno by a one-sided decision in 2016. Two fights later, back at 126, he lost an even wider decision to Carl Frampton.

He couldn’t possibly come back again, right? Welllll ….

He made the decision to drop all the way down to a more natural 118 pounds, where he would be at his most powerful. The move proved to be brilliant. He knocked on Ryan Burnett and Stephon Young in 2018 and 2019, which set up his first fight with then-bantamweight champion Inoue in November 2019.

Donaire stunned the boxing world and won universal admiration by pushing Inoue harder than anyone has before or since before losing a unanimous decision, although we later learned that Inoue fought with a broken orbital (facial) bone.

That would’ve been the perfect exit for a fighter about to turn 37 but Donaire still wasn’t ready to leave. And he had another surprise for us.

In his next fight, a year and a half later, he knocked out then-unbeaten Nordine Oubaali in the fourth round in May 2021 to take the Frenchman’s 118-pound – his ninth – and successfully defended it by stopping also-unbeaten Reymart Gaballo in the same round the following December.

That was the last time he had his hand raised. The rematch with Inoue came next. And Donaire, overwhelmed by the Japanese pound-for-pounder, didn’t make it out of the second round.

Inoue lost his “gamble,” as he put it, but he refused to go away.

Perhaps because his name is Nonito Donaire, he was given a chance to fight Santiago (27-3-5, 14 KOs) for the vacant WBC bantamweight title on the one of the biggest cards of the year immediately after a devastating loss that would’ve knocked an ordinary fighter out of contention.

Can he deliver one more time?

He certainly believes so. And not only that, world title No. 10 would only be the first step in a larger, more ambitious plan. He wants to achieve something that has eluded all these years.

“I have a bigger vision ahead of me,” he said. “I want to become undisputed. That’s the only thing that I haven’t done in boxing. I’ve gotten lots of accolades, but never been undisputed. That’s my biggest purpose and that’s why I’m still fighting.”

Of course, this could end in disaster for him. Again, he’s 40 (Santiago is 27). He last fought more than a year ago. And Santiago, a one-time title challenger from Mexico, has performed well against elite opponents.

One thing we’ve learned about Donaire over the years, though: Never put anything past him.

[lawrence-related id=30806,30778,30773,38264,38261,38257,38250,38247,38223,38219,38215,38127,37748,37544]

Lost amid the hoopla of the Terence Crawford-Errol Spence Jr. matchup is a remarkable moment in boxing.

Nonito Donaire, the former four-division titleholder, will be fighting Alexandro Santiago for another belt at 40 years old on the Crawford-Spence pay-per-view card Saturday night at T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas.

Too much, too late for the great Filipino-American? Don’t count on it.

Donaire (42-7, 28 KOs) has been written off multiple times over his two-decade career only to surprise his opponents and the boxing world by emerging victorious in big fights.

“The Filipino Flash” is coming off perhaps his most brutal setback, a second-round knockout in his rematch with Naoya “The Monster” Inoue in June of last year. That seemed to signal the end of a first-ballot Hall of Fame career.

However, Donaire had other ideas. He still believes he has another comeback in him.

“I gambled in my last fight, and sometimes you win, sometimes you lose,” he said. “Going into this fight, I just have to show everyone that I’ve still got it. I’m doing it for me now and to show what I’m capable of. I love the sport and I’m grateful that I’m getting the opportunity.

“The power at this age is so much more potent. I put so much more into it. Not just emotion and experience, but I put every essence of a man into this.”

Donaire burst upon the international scene when he knocked out then-112-pound champ Vic Darchinyan with an inhuman left hook way back in 2007, giving him the first of the nine major world titles he would ultimately win.

He had his best year in 2012, when he defeated Wilfredo Vazquez Jr., Jeffrey Mathebula, Toshiaki Nishioka and Jorge Arce to become Fighter of the Year.

Then came his first loss since his second professional fight, a unanimous decision against boxing wizard Guillermo Rigondeaux at 122 pounds in 2013 that some believed exposed Donaire’s technical limitations. He won a 126-pound title two fights later only to lose it by knock out to then-unbeaten Nicholas Walters, his first stoppage loss.

Donaire’s response? He moved back down to 122, won another title and then lost it to Jessie Magdaleno by a one-sided decision in 2016. Two fights later, back at 126, he lost an even wider decision to Carl Frampton.

He couldn’t possibly come back again, right? Welllll ….

He made the decision to drop all the way down to a more natural 118 pounds, where he would be at his most powerful. The move proved to be brilliant. He knocked on Ryan Burnett and Stephon Young in 2018 and 2019, which set up his first fight with then-bantamweight champion Inoue in November 2019.

Donaire stunned the boxing world and won universal admiration by pushing Inoue harder than anyone has before or since before losing a unanimous decision, although we later learned that Inoue fought with a broken orbital (facial) bone.

That would’ve been the perfect exit for a fighter about to turn 37 but Donaire still wasn’t ready to leave. And he had another surprise for us.

In his next fight, a year and a half later, he knocked out then-unbeaten Nordine Oubaali in the fourth round in May 2021 to take the Frenchman’s 118-pound – his ninth – and successfully defended it by stopping also-unbeaten Reymart Gaballo in the same round the following December.

That was the last time he had his hand raised. The rematch with Inoue came next. And Donaire, overwhelmed by the Japanese pound-for-pounder, didn’t make it out of the second round.

Inoue lost his “gamble,” as he put it, but he refused to go away.

Perhaps because his name is Nonito Donaire, he was given a chance to fight Santiago (27-3-5, 14 KOs) for the vacant WBC bantamweight title on the one of the biggest cards of the year immediately after a devastating loss that would’ve knocked an ordinary fighter out of contention.

Can he deliver one more time?

He certainly believes so. And not only that, world title No. 10 would only be the first step in a larger, more ambitious plan. He wants to achieve something that has eluded all these years.

“I have a bigger vision ahead of me,” he said. “I want to become undisputed. That’s the only thing that I haven’t done in boxing. I’ve gotten lots of accolades, but never been undisputed. That’s my biggest purpose and that’s why I’m still fighting.”

Of course, this could end in disaster for him. Again, he’s 40 (Santiago is 27). He last fought more than a year ago. And Santiago, a one-time title challenger from Mexico, has performed well against elite opponents.

One thing we’ve learned about Donaire over the years, though: Never put anything past him.

[lawrence-related id=30806,30778,30773,38264,38261,38257,38250,38247,38223,38219,38215,38127,37748,37544]