It ain’t over for Filipino Flash

MANILA, Philippines - Former world flyweight, bantamweight, superbantamweight and featherweight champion Nonito Donaire Jr. is far from finished as a fighter. He’s coming off a crushing sixth round knockout loss to Jamaica’s Nicholas Walters but the Filipino Flash was recently quoted in taking the defeat as a positive to bring him back on track stronger than ever.

 Donaire, 32, kept to himself during a two-month training period away from home while preparing for Walters. The voluntary seclusion was to focus for the fight without distractions. That meant no interviews or media availability in camp and not even HBO could break the silence. Because of the privacy, there was no way for media to account for what went on in Donaire’s camp.

 After Donaire lost to Walters, Boxing News editor Tris Dixon wrote, “One wonders if he trained with the same intensity and desire as he did when he had everything to prove rather than little to lose.” Dixon said, “By the time (Donaire) was outscored by Guillermo Rigondeaux (last year), his focus seemed to be on his young family … you cannot criticize anyone for that but Lennox Lewis always maintained he only settled down and had children after he retired so he could focus on boxing and his career, that gave him a myopic focus that served him incredibly well without blunting his desire during his final years.”

But in an interview with Boxing News writer Danny Flexen a week later, Donaire denied that he didn’t train hard.  “Physically, I was in tremendous shape,” said Donaire. “I had never trained as hard but I didn’t do mentally what I should have, like watch fights and study. I usually watch lots of fights to learn and my dad watched my opponents. Before Toshiaki Nioshioka, the first fight with Vic Darchinyan and Fernando Montiel, I studied but not this time and I paid the price. My biggest mistake in preparation was that I took the fight lightly from the strategic part. I left my family for two months – I’ve never done that – and sparred more rounds than ever. I never put the gameplan in my mind so when I needed it, I didn’t listen because I didn’t know it.”

What sets Donaire apart from other fighters is his intelligence in analyzing what went right or wrong in a bout. Against Walters, Donaire could’ve scored a knockout in the second round but Walters was saved by the bell. A confident Donaire went after Walters in the third round, looking to end it with a bang. Instead, it was Walters who seized the upper hand, dropping Donaire with a right uppercut. That punch changed the complexion of the fight.

“I hurt him in the second round and thought ‘I’ll take him out in the next,’” said Donaire, quoted by Flexen. “That was my biggest mistake. My father (Nonito Sr.) told me to box him smart and pick him apart but I refused. I was fighting a bigger guy with incredible power so it was 50-50 who would land the next big punch. When I was dropped the first time, that put panic in my mind. The damage was done. I wanted to keep fighting but my mind never really recovered.”

Walters was in control of the fight starting from that knockdown in the third. Cut over both eyes, Donarie went for broke in the sixth. During a furious exchange in the middle of the ring, Donaire threw a left hook that missed. Walters countered with a right to the temple and Donaire fell face first to the canvas. The Filipino courageously got up but referee Raul Caiz Jr. signaled it was over.

Donaire said he’s stepping back “to get the ball rolling again at 122 or 126.” He added that when he’s physically and mentally fit, he’ll be back in the featherweight division. Donaire even spoke of a rematch with Walters.

“I’m faster than (Walters) and if I had followed my dad’s instructions better – to throw more body shots and use lateral movement – I might have had a big chance of winning,” he said. “But he did what he needed to do. That’d be my first scenario in a rematch, to just box. This loss is a positive though because it showed my flaws and if I want to be here, I have to train harder and not take anything lightly.”

While quitting is not in Donaire’s vocabulary, he said he’s giving himself one year to determine if his heart is still in the game. “I’m very tenacious and prideful,” he said. “When I was winning in 2012, after I beat Jorge Arce, I thought about retiring at that point but then I got offered the Rigondeaux fight and I took it for bigger money and when I lost, I told myself, ‘I’m not stopping now.’ Now, I’m going to give myself one year of doing what I should be doing as an athlete: training hard, eating healthily and preparing mentally. Just before I became a world champion, I was on the verge of quitting then I knocked out Darchinyan. Now, I’m back at the crossroads and I’m giving myself one year to see if that works.”