Boxing: Nonito Donaire Thriving in Virtual Anonymity

Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company, Evolve Media. Is it possible for a reigning world champion and former “Fighter of the Year” of fairly recent vintage to headline his own pay-per-view card, do his thing before 25,000 screaming, supportive fans and knock down and bloody his outclassed challenger three times en route to a dominating third-round stoppage, all in virtual anonymity? Well, yes, but it is hardly an unusual occurrence for 33-year-old Nonito Donaire, the “Filipino Flash,” who, despite 15 years of professional boxing experience and with world titles in four separate weight classes, still knows the sting of sometimes being overlooked and underappreciated. To be fair, Donaire’s three-round thrashing of Hungary’s Zsolt Bedak was no small thing in Cebu City, in the WBO junior featherweight champ’s birth nation of the Philippines. There, his star status has increased with the announced retirement — we will have to see if that lasts — of that country’s most beloved sports hero, Manny Pacquiao, the only boxer to have won world titles in eight weight classes. However, the PPV telecast in the United States began at 8 a.m. ET, when many Americans, even the most ardent fight fans, are sleeping in, watching TV they do not have to pay for or finally rousing themselves to do some of that spring gardening they had been putting off. In any case, why purchase an early-morning PPV telecast from halfway around the world when later that same night, the two best pound-for-pound fighters on the planet, in the estimation of many experts, would be appearing in separate bouts on HBO? It was, not unexpectedly, a big deal in the fight world at large when WBA/IBF middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin registered his 22nd consecutive knockout with a two-round blowout of the totally outclassed Dominic Wade, who was even less of a threat to “GGG” than the unfortunate Bedak was to Donaire; and WBC flyweight ruler Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez defended his title on a wide unanimous decision over a good opponent, McWilliams Arroyo, despite the fact that the Nicaraguan’s 10-fight KO streak came to a halt. It was even a bigger deal when Golovkin called out the WBC middleweight champ, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, in the ring at The Forum in Inglewood, California, 12 hours after Donaire had celebrated his thrashing of Bedak by expressing his desire for a rematch with Guillermo Rigondeaux, the second man to have defeated him as a pro. Guess which one of those throw-down-the-gauntlet demands received more attention from the international boxing media not based in the Philippines? “I didn’t get back into this title position to hold it to fight B- and C-level fighters,” Donaire (37-3, 24 KOs) told USA Today after he had beaten up Bedak (25-2, 8 KOs) to a fare-thee-well. “I want to be the best. I want to fight the best; and I’m willing to fight anybody: Rigondeaux, [Carl] Frampton, [Hugo] Ruiz. You name it.” Donaire knows what it is like to have made it all the way to the top of the mountain where Golovkin and Gonzalez now enjoy the panoramic view. He was the consensus “Fighter of the Year” for 2012 after dispatching four highly regarded opponents: Wilfred Vasquez Jr., Jeffrey Mathebula, Toshiaki Nishioka and Jorge Arce, the last two inside the distance. He earned that prestigious designation from, among others, the Boxing Writers Association of America, ESPN, Sports Illustrated and Yahoo! Sports. He was the little guy — then the WBO super bantamweight champion — who seemed poised to become the first jockey-sized fighter to crack the seven-figure purse club since Michael “Little Hands of Stone” Carbajal and …

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