Those of you who have been following this column religiously over the years know how partial I am to Nonito Donaire.
I was even fortunate enough to run into him here in Cebu City a few months ago with his lovely wife, Rachel, and we had our picture taken together.
LOSS. A couple of weeks ago, “The Filipino Flash” lost via unanimous decision to Alejandro Santiago in a battle for the vacant WBC Bantamweight diadem at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
It wasn’t such a terrible loss, as Donaire certainly had his moments in the fight, but considering that Santiago was not a top-tier fighter (yet) , it was a huge setback.
In the third round, Nonito landed one of his feared left hooks that cut Santiago but the much younger fighter exhibited tremendous recuperative powers and was able to regain control of the action.
TRIGGER. It was a trigger thing, most of them said and I can only agree. The openings were mostly there, but Donaire could not capitalize on them as he himself admitted afterward.
Shades of Dela Hoya vs. Pacquiao when the aging warrior (34 at that time) revealed that he was helpless against Pacquiao’s onslaught and just couldn’t throw his punches even though he wanted to.
At 40 years of age, Donaire has been an active pro fighter for 22 long years. I say active, because some champions fight only once a year. Donaire has been consistently in the spotlight, always seeking out challenges and achieving ring immorality.
His retinue of victims look like a Hall of Fame roster. Vic Darchinyan, Jorge Arce, Fernando Montiel, Hernan Marquez etc.... Most of them are retired now, and obviously age has a lot to do with it.
My concern is that when asked if his age had anything to do with his loss, Nonito apparently said “hell, no” to that proposition.
TIME. I understand what Nonito is saying. He is still a very good fighter and feels he can go on to fight competitively. But he himself admitted that he had a hard time pulling the trigger and so has to take a long hard look at the fact that he now has lost two fights consecutively, the first time in his career and is now 5-5 in his last 10 fights.
Some hard decisions are in order for the “Filipino Flash.” To me, it would be totally fine for him to maybe fight a few more fights — not necessarily go on a title run anymore and call it a career. I don’t want him to turn into a gatekeeper where young-and-upcoming fighters are lining up to fight him so they could put his name on their resume.
VERBATIM. “I didn’t pull the trigger, and that was my biggest problem” - Nonito Donaire (via the Manila Times)
LAST ROUND. It’s on Ethan A. Siu who celebrates his birthday this week. Cheers!