Donaire ready to get it on

With his title defense against South Africa’s Moruti (Babyface) Mthalane just three days away, IBF flyweight champion Nonito Donaire, Jr. said yesterday he’s ready for the cocky challenger and optimistic of retaining the crown at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas this Saturday (Sunday morning, Manila).

Donaire just finished his last week of sparring and declared making the 112-pound limit won’t be a problem. He hasn’t fought for nearly a year but insisted ring rust won’t be a problem in disposing of Mthalane who earned the title crack by outpointing Australia ‘s Hussein Hussein in East Cape last July.

“I’d be ready if the fight was tomorrow,” said Donaire in a text message from Las Vegas. “I’m waking up weighing 118 to 120 pounds. I’m on schedule with my weight program to hit 112 the day before the fight.”

Donaire, 25, joined other fighters in the Mandalay Bay card at a media workout yesterday in the Top Rank gym in Las Vegas.

At the media workout, Donaire announced his support of the Bantay Bata program. His wife Rachel said he will donate $2 for every sale of his personalized “Filipino Flash” T-shirt, produced by Cultured Roots. The shirt is in the market for $24.95.

Donaire initiated the donation to express his support for disadvantaged Filipino children. He was born in Talibon, Bohol and grew up in General Santos City in a life of poverty. As a boy, he sold whatever he could in the public market to augment his parents’ meager earnings.

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“It was difficult growing up in my village in the Philippines ,” said Donaire, quoted in East Side Boxing. “My parents moved to America when I was seven. From the time they left until we rejoined them in the US, my two brothers, sister and I were raised by our grandparents. During those last few years living in that village, we hardly had any food and what we did have had to be rationed out. But nobody complained. We appreciated what we had. Some people had it a lot worse.”

Donaire said he hopes his show of support would trigger “a wave of change” to improve the lives of poor Filipino children.

“Whatever happens in the ring, nobody can take away Jun’s title – the Children’s Champion,” said Rachel.

Cultured Roots is a Bay Area-based outfit that produces merchandise for the Fil-Am market. Aside from Donaire’s T-shirt, it also produces skateboards, rosary chains and other products with a distinct Filipino identity. The group behind Cultured Roots is composed of Jason Cuison, Anthony Hilario, Lionel Domulot, Jon Segarra, Willard Hoot and Jem Cortes.

After this Saturday’s fight, Donaire and his wife plan to spend the holidays in the Philippines. There is talk of pitting Donaire against flamboyant Mexican Jorge Arce early next year but the fight depends on how they fare this weekend. Arce takes on countryman Isidro Garcia in a 12-round bout in the Mandalay Bay undercard.

Meanwhile, Mthalane’s chief cornerman Nick Durandt said he’s confident of victory.

“It will not be easy because Donaire is a good fighter who possesses one of the lethal left hooks in the business,” said Durandt who guided Thulani (Sugar Boy) Malinga to the WBC supermiddleweight title in Newcastle in 1996. “But we have detected some mistakes from his boxing armory which we intend to exploit.”

Durandt said fighting under the Las Vegas lights won’t intimidate Mthalane who has never fought outside South Africa.

“I have been in far bigger events with lots of pressure so it won’t make a difference to me,” said Durandt. But he couldn’t claim to speak for Mthalane.

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Donaire said he’s not taking Mthalane, who has lost only once in compiling a 22-1 record with 15 KOs (including a first round stoppage of Flipino Apol Suico), lightly.

“I’m a lot faster and I’ve never been outboxed my whole life since my amateur days,” he said, quoted by Dennis Guillermo in Boxing Herald. “From the way I’m hitting now, I don’t think anybody can hit as hard as I can in the 112-pound division. Mthalane comes in 100 percent. He can throw all the punches in the world in all the rounds. I want to be able to do that as well. We’ve done so much to focus on being in the best shape possible.”

Donaire said ring rust won’t be a concern because he prepared two months for Mthalane.

“We’re ready,” he said. “Of course, when you go into the ring, it’s always different but we’ve prepared for the worst scenario in case the guy proves to be tough or whatever so we trained really hard for it.”