MANILA, Philippines – Nonito Donaire Jr.’s exploits in the featherweight division are over for now.
This after the Donaire’s camp said the boxer is planning to return to junior featherweight (122 pounds) in his next fight reportedly scheduled this May in Macau.
Cameron Dunkin, Donaire’s manager, told Dan Rafael of ESPN.com that the five-division champion realized that fighting at featherweight (126 pounds) is too much for him.
“That’s what we are trying to do and he’s going to fight at 122,” Dunkin said.
Donaire suffered a sixth round knockout loss to a much bigger and more powerful Nicholas Walters to surrender the WBA Super World featherweight title in October last year. The Filipino-American fighter went down once each in the third and sixth rounds en route to his first knockout setback.
Prior to fighting Walters, Donaire stopped Vic Darchinyan and decisioned Simpiwe Vetyeka in the same division.
Now, Donaire eyes a successful comeback against an opponent still to be determined.
“We’ve talked about it but don’t know who we are going to fight yet. But Nonito wants to fight and we’ll get him fighting again. He knows he can’t fight at that weight [126 pounds]. He can beat a lot of featherweights, don’t get me wrong. But he’s used to beating everyone and being the best. He’s going back to 122 where he can do that,” Dunkin explained.
At junior featherweight, Dunkin said Donaire can regain his old form that led him to win titles at flyweight, super flyweight, bantamweight, super bantamweight and featherweight.
“He won some fights at 126, but he didn’t look like the Nonito we were used to. After [the Walters fight] was over, he said, ‘You’re right, I can’t fight these guys at 126. They’re just too big.’ So he’ll go back down to 122 and become a champion again. He’s not done and he has a lot of pride,” the boxing manager ended. – Dino Maragay