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Nonito Donaire says “I’m the Knockout Guy in This Fight”

Japanese sensation Naoya Inoue and Nonito Donaire clash on Nov. 7 in suburban Tokyo at the Saitama Super Arena in the bantamweight finals of the World Boxing Super Series. At stake are WBA and IBF world title belts and the coveted Muhammad Ali Trophy. Inoue, nicknamed “Monster,” is a heavy favorite.
Nonito Donaire, who turns 38 the week after the fight, has won world titles in four weight classes: 112, 118, 122, and 127. Some day in the future he will, almost assuredly, be enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame. But – and although he has been stopped only once in 45 fights, that as a featherweight – hardly anyone likes his chances to stay upright on Nov. 7.
To say that Naoya Inoue has been impressive in his recent outings would be an understatement. His last three fights against title-holders Jamie McDonnell, Juan Carlos Payano, and Emmanuel Rodriguez lasted only six minutes and 21 seconds in the aggregate. None of the three had been stopped before. Payano and Rodriguez had never been dropped.
The noted Scottish boxing historian Matt McGrain has been unstinting in his praise. “The pathology of his violence is exquisite,” said McGrain of Inoue in a story that ran on these pages. “He is a watching, waiting, learning doom-machine that appears to have been programmed by Carlos Zarate.” (Note: Zarate scored 63 knockouts in his 70-bout career.)
Inoue’s triumph over Payano, which took him all of 70 seconds, was feted by a cover story in The Ring magazine, making the baby-faced assassin the first Japanese fighter to appear on the magazine’s cover in the 119-year history of that august publication. If Inoue (18-0, 16 KOs) can reprise the wow factor vs. Donaire, he will likely be named the 2019 Fighter of the Year in all the year-end polls – unless Andy Ruiz can repeat his upset of Anthony Joshua, in which case the voters will have a thorny dilemma.
Nonito Donaire, the Filipino Flash, is nonplussed. A pro since 2001, Donaire (40-5, 26 KOs) is confident that he can derail the Inoue Express.
“People seem to have forgotten that I have a knockout punch too,” says Donaire. “In my mind, if knockouts are going to be the theme of the promotion, I should get top billing.”
Indeed, he certainly does have a knockout punch. His brutal knockouts of Vic Darchinyan in 2007 and Fernando Montiel in 2011 were named Knockout of the Year by the aforementioned The Ring. And his knockout of late sub Stephon Young in his most recent start is a candidate for that honor again. In the sixth round of their fight in Lafayette, Louisiana, Donaire knocked Young out cold with a thunderous left hook.
Donaire may have gotten a break when his second-round opponent Zolani Tete was forced to withdraw with a shoulder injury, but it’s worth noting that he was the underdog going into this tournament. Top seed Ryan Burnett had his pick of the four unseeded entrants and chose Donaire, effectively making Donaire the eighth seed of an eight-man tournament.
Donaire could see the logic. The undefeated (19-0) Burnett, reportedly 94-4 as an amateur, was the younger man by almost 10 years. Donaire would be coming down in weight; almost seven years had elapsed since he had last fought as a bantamweight. His recent showings, he readily admitted, were lackluster. He was outpointed by Jessie Magdaleno and Carl Frampton in fights spaced 17 months apart. And finally, the fight would be in Glasgow, a regional site advantage for Burnett, an Irishman from Belfast.
In the fourth round, Burnett took a knee after apparently suffering a lower back injury after throwing a right hand. He retired on his stool after that round and was stretchered out of the ring. The conventional version is that he suffered a freak injury and Nonito is perfectly fine with that narrative. “People are entitled to their opinion,” he says nonchalantly.
Outside the ring, Donaire isn’t a fighter, but the same can’t be said for his manager who is insistent that Burnett’s injury was caused by a body punch and that Burnett was stretchered out of the ring to save face, thereby denying her husband his proper due.
Yes, Donaire’s manager happens to be the woman that he sleeps with, the mother of their two children, boys aged six and four. She’s not only his manager, but his strength and conditioning coach. “She pretty much runs everything,” says Donaire. “She’s 99 percent the boss.”
Nonito Donaire was born in the Philippines in the same town where Manny Pacquiao was born, the third youngest of four children. His parents left him and one of his siblings with his grandparents when they migrated to the United States, sending for them as soon as his father, a welder, could afford their passage. He arrived in the U.S. at the age of 10 and grew into adulthood in San Leandro, a community on the east side of the San Francisco Bay.
Donaire won his first title in 2007 with his explosive knockout of Darchinyan. Later that year, at a Bay Area club, he met Rachel Marcial, his future wife. She had spent five years in the U.S. Air Force and was a big name in the sport of Taekwondo, having won numerous military and civilian titles. Since 2011, their primary home has been in Las Vegas.
Rachel Marcial Donaire doesn’t fit the stereotype of a female prizefighter with a military background. In 2012, the pert Filipina-American was named the 38th sexiest woman on the planet in the Filipino edition of the popular international men’s magazine FHM in their annual listing of the 100 sexiest women in the world. As power couples in boxing go, Nonito and Rachel are the second-most “paparazzi-ed” in the Philippines, trailing only Senator Manny and Jinkee.
Rachel (pictured on the far right beside her husband at a Tokyo press conference) believes her Air Force background was hugely advantageous in preparing her for her role as the boss of Team Donaire. “It helped me to be very good at having an attention to detail, not letting things slide. Especially with Nonito’s camp, we have become a very efficient team because of the way I was brought through in the military,” she told David Kelly, a writer for the Belfast Telegraph.
Beginning with his father, Nonito has had several boxing coaches over the years. For a time, he was with the Cuban globetrotter Ismael Salas. That didn’t work out and now he’s with old salt Kenny Adams who is perhaps best known as the head trainer of the 1988 U.S. Olympic boxing team that won eight medals in Seoul. Nonito’s relationship with his father has been rocky at times, but things are now copacetic and dad will be in the corner with Adams on Nov. 7.
Earlier this week, this reporter attended a workout by Donaire held behind a closed curtain at the City Boxing Club in Las Vegas. It was a vigorous workout with few dead moments that included a zesty sparring session with South African toughie DeeJay Kriel. Later that afternoon, Donaire had another workout scheduled at a park that involved exercises customized for him by Rachel, a certified fitness instructor. One doubts that even professional triathletes are as well-conditioned.
Team Donaire shifts its training camp to the Philippines on Oct. 18. (Tokyo is 16 hours ahead of Las Vegas but only one hour ahead of Manila, an important consideration.) Then it’s off to Japan for the bout that will be contested in that nation’s largest indoor stadium. The promoters, say Rachel, anticipate a crowd somewhat north of 20,000.
Regardless of the outcome, Donaire says he has no plans to retire any time soon. “This division (118) is where I belong,” he says. “It’s always where I felt most comfortable. I love boxing and I am very healthy.”
Inoue vs. Donaire will air live in North America on DAZN. The odds are skewed heavily in favor of the local guy, but it’s yet a very compelling fight.
Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel
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Arne’s Almanac: The First BWAA Dinner Was Quite the Shindig

The first annual dinner of the Boxing Writers Association of America was staged on April 25, 1926 in the grand ballroom of New York’s Hotel Astor, an edifice that rivaled the original Waldorf Astoria as the swankiest hotel in the city. Back then, the organization was known as the Boxing Writers Association of Greater New York.
The ballroom was configured to hold 1200 for the banquet which was reportedly oversubscribed. Among those listed as agreeing to attend were the governors of six states (New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Maryland) and the mayors of 10 of America’s largest cities.
In 1926, radio was in its infancy and the digital age was decades away (and inconceivable). So, every journalist who regularly covered boxing was a newspaper and/or magazine writer, editor, or cartoonist. And at this juncture in American history, there were plenty of outlets for someone who wanted to pursue a career as a sportswriter and had the requisite skills to get hired.
The following papers were represented at the inaugural boxing writers’ dinner:
New York Times
New York News
New York World
New York Sun
New York Journal
New York Post
New York Mirror
New York Telegram
New York Graphic
New York Herald Tribune
Brooklyn Eagle
Brooklyn Times
Brooklyn Standard Union
Brooklyn Citizen
Bronx Home News
This isn’t a complete list because a few of these papers, notably the New York World and the New York Journal, had strong afternoon editions that functioned as independent papers. Plus, scribes from both big national wire services (Associated Press and UPI) attended the banquet and there were undoubtedly a smattering of scribes from papers in New Jersey and Connecticut.
Back then, the event’s organizer Nat Fleischer, sports editor of the New York Telegram and the driving force behind The Ring magazine, had little choice but to limit the journalistic component of the gathering to writers in the New York metropolitan area. There wasn’t a ballroom big enough to accommodate a good-sized response if he had extended the welcome to every boxing writer in North America.
The keynote speaker at the inaugural dinner was New York’s charismatic Jazz Age mayor James J. “Jimmy” Walker, architect of the transformative Walker Law of 1920 which ushered in a new era of boxing in the Empire State with a template that would guide reformers in many other jurisdictions.
Prizefighting was then associated with hooligans. In his speech, Mayor Walker promised to rid the sport of their ilk. “Boxing, as you know, is closest to my heart,” said hizzoner. “So I tell you the police force is behind you against those who would besmirch or injure boxing. Rowdyism doesn’t belong in this town or in your game.” (In 1945, Walker would be the recipient of the Edward J. Neil Memorial Award given for meritorious service to the sport. The oldest of the BWAA awards, the previous recipients were all active or former boxers. The award, no longer issued under that title, was named for an Associated Press sportswriter and war correspondent who died from shrapnel wounds covering the Spanish Civil War.)
Another speaker was well-traveled sportswriter Wilbur Wood, then affiliated with the Brooklyn Citizen. He told the assembly that the aim of the organization was two-fold: to help defend the game against its detractors and to promote harmony among the various factions.
Of course, the 1926 dinner wouldn’t have been as well-attended without the entertainment. According to press dispatches, Broadway stars and performers from some of the city’s top nightclubs would be there to regale the attendees. Among the names bandied about were vaudeville superstars Sophie Tucker and Jimmy Durante, the latter of whom would appear with his trio, Durante, (Lou) Clayton, and (Eddie) Jackson.
There was a contraction of New York newspapers during the Great Depression. Although empirical evidence is lacking, the inaugural boxing writers dinner was likely the largest of its kind. Fifteen years later, in 1941, the event drew “more than 200” according to a news report. There was no mention of entertainment.
In 1950, for the first time, the annual dinner was opened to the public. For $25, a civilian could get a meal and mingle with some of his favorite fighters. Sugar Ray Robinson was the Edward J. Neil Award winner that year, honored for his ring exploits and for donating his purse from the Charlie Fusari fight to the Damon Runyon Cancer Fund.
There was no formal announcement when the Boxing Writers Association of Greater New York was re-christened the Boxing Writers Association of America, but by the late 1940s reporters were referencing the annual event as simply the boxing writers dinner. By then, it had become traditional to hold the annual affair in January, a practice discontinued after 1971.
The winnowing of New York’s newspaper herd plus competing banquets in other parts of the country forced Nat Fleischer’s baby to adapt. And more adaptations will be necessary in the immediate future as the future of the BWAA, as it currently exists, is threatened by new technologies. If the forthcoming BWAA dinner (April 30 at the Edison Ballroom in mid-Manhattan) were restricted to wordsmiths from the traditional print media, the gathering would be too small to cover the nut and the congregants would be drawn disproportionately from the geriatric class.
Some of those adaptations have already started. Last year, Las Vegas resident Sean Zittel, a recent UNLV graduate, had the distinction of becoming the first videographer welcomed into the BWAA. With more and more people getting their news from sound bites, rather than the written word, the videographer serves an important function.
The reporters who conducted interviews with pen and paper have gone the way of the dodo bird and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A taped interview for a “talkie” has more integrity than a story culled from a paper and pen interview because it is unfiltered. Many years ago, some reporters, after interviewing the great Joe Louis, put words in his mouth that made him seem like a dullard, words consistent with the Sambo stereotype. In other instances, the language of some athletes was reconstructed to the point where the reader would think the athlete had a second job as an English professor.
The content created by videographers is free from that bias. More of them will inevitably join the BWAA and similar organizations in the future.
Photo: Nat Fleischer is flanked by Sugar Ray Robinson and Tony Zale at the 1947 boxing writers dinner.
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Gabriela Fundora KOs Marilyn Badillo and Perez Upsets Conwell in Oceanside

It was just a numbers game for Gabriela Fundora and despite Mexico’s Marilyn Badillo’s elusive tactics it took the champion one punch to end the fight and retain her undisputed flyweight world title by knockout on Saturday.
Will it be her last flyweight defense?
Though Fundora (16-0, 8 KOs) fired dozens of misses, a single punch found Badillo (19-1-1, 3 KOs) and ended her undefeated career and first attempt at a world title at the Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, California.
Fundora, however, proves unbeatable at flyweight.
The champion entered the arena as the headliner for the Golden Boy Promotion show and stepped through the ropes with every physical advantage possible, including power.
Mexico’s Badillo was a midget compared to Fundora but proved to be as elusive as a butterfly in a menagerie for the first six rounds. As the six-inch taller Fundora connected on one punch for every dozen thrown, that single punch was a deadly reminder.
Badillo tried ducking low and slipping to the left while countering with slashing uppercuts, she found little success. She did find the body a solid target but the blows proved to be useless. And when Badillo clinched, that proved more erroneous as Fundora belted her rapidly during the tie-ups.
“She was kind of doing her ducking thing,” said Fundora describing Badillo’s defensive tactics. “I just put the pressure on. It was just like a train. We didn’t give her that break.”
The Mexican fighter tried valiantly with various maneuvers. None proved even slightly successful. Fundora remained poised and under control as she stalked the challenger.
In the seventh round Badillo seemed to take a stand and try to slug it out with Fundora. She quickly was lit up by rapid left crosses and down she went at 1:44 of the seventh round. The Mexican fighter’s corner wisely waved off the fight and referee Rudy Barragan stopped the fight and held the dazed Badillo upright.
Once again Fundora remained champion by knockout. The only question now is will she move up to super flyweight or bantamweight to challenge the bigger girls.
Perez Beats Conwell.
Mexico’s Jorge “Chino” Perez (33-4, 26 KOs) upset Charles Conwell (21-1, 15 KOs) to win by split decision after 12 rounds in their super welterweight showdown.
It was a match that paired two hard-hitting fighters whose ledgers brimmed with knockouts, but neither was able to score a knockdown against each other.
Neither fighter moved backward. It was full steam ahead with Conwell proving successful to the body and head with left hooks and Perez connecting with rights to the head and body. It was difficult to differentiate the winner.
Though Conwell seemed to be the superior defensive fighter and more accurate, two judges preferred Perez’s busier style. They gave the fight to Perez by 115-113 scores with the dissenter favoring Conwell by the same margin.
It was Conwell’s first pro loss. Maybe it will open doors for more opportunities.
Other Bouts
Tristan Kalkreuth (15-1) managed to pass a serious heat check by unanimous decision against former contender Felix Valera (24-8) after a 10-round back-and-forth heavyweight fight.
It was very close.
Kalkreuth is one of those fighters that possess all the physical tools including youth and size but never seems to be able to show it. Once again he edged past another foe but at least this time he faced an experienced fighter in Valera.
Valera had his moments especially in the middle of the 10-round fight but slowed down during the last three rounds.
One major asset for Kalkreuth was his chin. He got caught but still motored past the clever Valera. After 10 rounds two judges saw it 99-91 and one other judge 97-93 all for Kalkreuth.
Highly-rated prospect Ruslan Abdullaev (2-0) blasted past dangerous Jino Rodrigo (13- 5-2) in an eight round super lightweight fight. He nearly stopped the very tough Rodrigo in the last two rounds and won by unanimous decision.
Abdullaev is trained by Joel and Antonio Diaz in Indio.
Bakersfield prospect Joel Iriarte (7-0, 7 KOs) needed only 1:44 to knock out Puerto Rico’s Marcos Jimenez (25-12) in a welterweight bout.
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‘Krusher’ Kovalev Exits on a Winning Note: TKOs Artur Mann in his ‘Farewell Fight’

At his peak, former three-time world light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev ranked high on everyone’s pound-for-pound list. Now 42 years old – he turned 42 earlier this month – Kovalev has been largely inactive in recent years, but last night he returned to the ring in his hometown of Chelyabinsk, Russia, and rose to the occasion in what was billed as his farewell fight, stopping Artur Mann in the seventh frame.
Kovalev hit his peak during his first run as a world title-holder. He was 30-0-1 (26 KOs) entering first match with Andre Ward, a mark that included a 9-0 mark in world title fights. The only blemish on his record was a draw that could have been ruled a no-contest (journeyman Grover Young was unfit to continue after Kovalev knocked down in the second round what with was deemed an illegal rabbit punch). Among those nine wins were two stoppages of dangerous Haitian-Canadian campaigner Jean Pascal and a 12-round shutout over Bernard Hopkins.
Kovalev’s stature was not diminished by his loss to the undefeated Ward. All three judges had it 114-113, but the general feeling among the ringside press was that Sergey nicked it.
The rematch was also somewhat controversial. Referee Tony Weeks, who halted the match in the eighth stanza with Kovalev sitting on the lower strand of ropes, was accused of letting Ward get away with a series of low blows, including the first punch of a three-punch series of body shots that culminated in the stoppage. Sergey was wobbled by a punch to the head earlier in the round and was showing signs of fatigue, but he was still in the fight. Respected judge Steve Weisfeld had him up by three points through the completed rounds.
Sergey Kovalev was never the same after his second loss to Andre Ward, albeit he recaptured a piece of the 175-pound title twice, demolishing Vyacheslav Shabranskyy for the vacant WBO belt after Ward announced his retirement and then avenging a loss to Eleider Alvarez (TKO by 7) with a comprehensive win on points in their rematch.
Kovalev’s days as a title-holder ended on Nov. 2, 2019 when Canelo Alvarez, moving up two weight classes to pursue a title in a fourth weight division, stopped him in the 11th round, terminating what had been a relatively even fight with a hellacious left-right combination that left Krusher so discombobulated that a count was superfluous.
That fight went head-to-head with a UFC fight in New York City. DAZN, to their everlasting discredit, opted to delay the start of Canelo-Kovalev until the main event of the UFC fight was finished. The delay lasted more than an hour and Kovalev would say that he lost his psychological edge during the wait.
Kovalev had two fights in the cruiserweight class between his setback to Canelo and last night’s presumptive swan song. He outpointed Tervel Pulev in Los Angeles and lost a 10-round decision to unheralded Robin Sirwan Safar in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Artur Mann, a former world title challenger – he was stopped in three rounds by Mairis Briedis in 2021 when Briedis was recognized as the top cruiserweight in the world – was unexceptional, but the 34-year-old German, born in Kazakhstan, wasn’t chopped liver either, and Kovalev’s stoppage of him will redound well to the Russian when he becomes eligible for the Boxing Hall of Fame.
Krusher almost ended the fight in the second round. He knocked Mann down hard with a short left hand and seemingly scored another knockdown before the round was over (but it was ruled a slip). Mann barely survived the round.
In the next round, a punch left Mann with a bad cut on his right eyelid, but the German came to fight and rounds three, four and five were competitive.
Kovalev had a good sixth round although there were indications that he was tiring. But in the seventh he got a second wind and unleashed a right-left combination that rolled back the clock to the days when he was one of the sport’s most feared punchers. Mann went down hard and as he staggered to his feet, his corner signaled that the fight should be stopped and the referee complied. The official time was 0:49 of round seven. It was the 30th KO for Kovalev who advanced his record to 36-5-1.
Addendum: History informs us that Farewell Fights have a habit of becoming redundant, by which we mean that boxers often get the itch to fight again after calling it quits. Have we seen the last of Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev? We woudn’t bet on it.
The complete Kovalev-Mann fight card was live-streamed on the Boxing News youtube channel.
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