Nonito Donaire: Will His Future Come To A Flashing Halt Tonight?
 By Joseph “The Mad Boxing Genius” Torres, Doghouse Boxing (Oct 18, 2014)
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"GOOD LUCK CHAMP" - (L-R) WBA Super World Featherweight champion Nonito "Filipino Flash" Donaire and WBA Regular World Featherweight champion Nicholas Walters of Jamaica shake hands at the final press conference Thursday for their upcoming WBA title unification bout, Saturday Oct. 18 at the StubHub Center in Carson, Calif. on HBO World Championship Boxing.
Photo © Chris Farina / Top Rank
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When you talk about Filipino fighters, you’re talking Manny Pacquiao.
The Pacman is arguably the most exciting fighter in the game. A sure fire first ballot Hall of Famer, he’ll certainly go down as one off the greatest fighters of all-time. It’s hard to believe there was even a time before Manny Pacquiao when it comes to Filipino boxing, but there was. I’m not talking about Gerry Penalosa or Luisito Espinoza. I’m talking long before that.
Before Manny Pacquiao or any of those other talented fighters, there was Gabriel “Flash” Elorde.
Elorde was known for his boxing skills but specifically his speed, thus the root of his nickname.
A member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame, he’s arguably the greatest junior lightweight champion of all-time due to the strangle hold he had on the division – dominating it for well over half a decade.
“Flash” and his career may not be a popular subject when it comes to boxing conversation these days, but it doesn’t erase what he’s accomplished and how he achieved it. And, if you’re going to fashion yourself after a fighter like Elorde by assuming his nickname, you better be pretty damn good!
Tonight, the featured undercard of HBO’s main event that pits Gennady Golovkin and Marco Antonio Rubio against each other, stars the “Filipino Flash” Nonito Donaire. He goes one-on-one with the undefeated and very scary Nicholas Walters.
Donaire has obviously fashioned his nickname after Elorde. And much like the Hall of Famer, he possesses great boxing skills and tremendous foot and hand speed. But, he also has that crazy power that can make you cringe when he explodes. Being dubbed the heir apparent to Manny Pacquiao, for a while it appeared to be a fitting and legitimate assumption.
Since capturing the imagination of boxing fans’ around the world with his relatively easy destruction over the power punching Vic Darchinyan in 2007, Donaire has ripped through opponents over the years and through multiple divisions. Looking like someone who would ensure the sports’ popularity and success for years to come, the majority of fans’ and experts jumped on his bandwagon.
What he had done up to this point, coupled with his potential that still hadn’t been realized, superseded the possibilities the public initially thought of this man. And when he hit the bantamweight scene and took on “the man” of the division in Fernando Montiel, it wasn’t made clearer as to what the future held for him and boxing. In complete dominating fashion, he took out the unified champ in in less than two full rounds and even this writer went out on record publically stating, “Manny who?”
Unlike other fighters’ who assumed the moniker of previous great fighters such as “Big” Michael Grant taking on George Foreman’s nickname or "Smokin" Bert Cooper assuming Joe Frazier’s nickname, Donaire was actually doing the “Flash” name justice--a rarity in any sport.
However, moving up divisions in a flash (yes pun intended), facing bigger and stronger opponents, not letting his body acclimatize to the new weight as well as dealing with injuries, it severely diminished his once invincible aura. It wasn’t so much the humiliating loss to Guillermo Rigondeaux who was at the time and still is an exceptionally talented fighter (despite having less than a dozen professional matches on fight night), but rather the wins he’s garnered just before and after the Rigondeaux fight.
His most recent fights, even in winning fashion were lackluster at best. Does his recent performances over the last few years, against tough but highly outgunned fighters say something? Has it furthered the notion that Donaire is destined to be a shooting star – an absolute spectacular and hypnotic scene, but only for a short period of time?
Tonight, the man he fights doesn’t have the speed or the experience that Donaire has but he’s far from a walk in the park. As a matter of fact, on paper he’s a whole hell lot better than that.
Nicholas Walters is a power-punching seek and destroy type of fighter who looks to be on the cusp of real superstardom. Undefeated, full of confidence and vowing to come away the winner this Saturday, there’s no better opportunity to cement his arrival onto the boxing scene by defeating a man who everyone knows isn’t quite what he used to be but still has the talent and determination to get back to the level he was once at. And with a victory, lackluster or not or whether Donaire is at his best or not, Walters can catapult himself into the boxing elite. But on the flip side, why would an “aging” fighter take on someone so dangerous but not necessarily bankable in terms of a “cash out” fight at this point of his career? What does he know that we don’t? There’s so many variables in this one fight that no other sport in the world can provide their fans.
2014 hasn’t been the most exciting year in boxing. This writer would classify this year in boxing as a “transition” year. The age of many boxers became a factor. Some fighters showed their better than they were originally perceived while others are showing that they weren’t as good as we first thought. Some are winding their careers down, some are on their last hurrah and some fighters’ are showing their potential to be the future of this sport. There’s hasn’t been much in determining dominance or supremacy but this has been a year where the landscape is being shaped for years to come.
Will Donaire show that even at his worst, he’s still better than everyone else? Or will Nicholas Walters take the moniker of the future of boxing? Wasn't it five minutes ago that Donaire was the future?
It may not have been the best year in boxing but it could prove later on, that it may be one of the most important ones in recent years. This could be a glimpse into the future, defined by the result of Donaire vs. Walters.
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