Thursday, November 22, 2007 Prepped and ready By Edri K. Aznar Sun.Star Correspondent
INTERNATIONAL Boxing Federation flyweight (IBF) and International Boxing Organization (IBO) champion Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire Jr. is all geared up for his upcoming battle with Luis Maldonado on Dec. 2 (RP time) at the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut.
Donaire (18-1, 11 KOs) will be making his first title defense against Maldonado(37-1, 28 KOs), and has completed his sparring rounds during his month-long stay in Cebu. He is now down to conditioning exercises going into the final week before the fight.
“My son’s training is 90 to 100 percent complete,” Nonito Donaire Sr. told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday. “He is now doing conditioning exercises. He’s mostly doing jogging, bagging and mitts to prepare his body physically for the fight.”
In Donaire’s last fight, the Pinoy knocked out and took the IBF and IBO belts from Australian Vic “Raging Bull” Darchinyan, while Maldonado’s single loss was against Darchinyan in 2006, losing an eighth-round TKO.
Donaire Sr. is confident his son has the combination of speed and power needed going into the fight with Maldonado and that he has also prepared physically and mentally.
The Donaires are bound to leave for the United States tomorrow and will continue their training there for the Dec. 2 fight.
After the fight, the Donaires will return to Cebu and continue training at the ALA gym for upcoming fights.
“We love training in Cebu. Hopefully we will be permanently based here,” the elder Donaire said.
Challenge
Meanwhile, Donaire Jr. will not back down from the challenge of Mexican Jorge “Travieso” Arce. (47-4-1, 36 KO’s).
“Donaire is a great champion. Humble. He deserves my respect. He didn’t say much. He just simply went in there and KO’d the big mouth Vic Darchinyan. If I get a chance to fight with him it will be a great fight. But believe me, it won’t be like that fight he had with the fraud Vic Darchinyan. It would be a classic,” Arce in a report posted at Fightbeat.com.
According to the father, “Arce is just all talk. We will never back down from anyone not even Arce. We were originally contacted to fight Arce but instead, they scheduled us to fight Maldonado. We would like to fight Arce next at 115 pounds but it depends on our promoter’s decision who our next opponent is.”
