Donaire fights French champion
FORMER world champion Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire Jr. returns to the ring next month against undefeated World Boxing Council (WBC) bantamweight champion Nordine Oubaali.
The fight is set May 29 at a still to be determined venue.
Donaire has been training rigidly for his fight against the Frenchman with his fathertrainer Nonito “Dodong” Sr. stressing his son is back harness after losing a world title unification bout with unified bantamweight champion Japanese Naoya Inoue via unanimous decision in November 2019.
“Ring rust is only for lazy fighters, those who do not train regularly. Nonito is training and sparring everyday in Las Vegas with different fighters, so I don’t think he will experience a ring rust,” Nonito Sr. told Businessmirror on Friday.
“If you do not train, you will lose your stamina. But in the case of Nonito, he hasn’t stopped training,” the elder Donaire added.
The Donaire-oubaali fight was originally rescheduled twice last year—summer and December—because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Donaire was given an opportunity to fight Puerto Rican Emmanuel Rodriguez for the vacant WBC interim bantamweight belt last December 19 but that fight was also canceled after the Filipino yielded a “false positive” test for the virus.
Oubaali was also supposed to fight Thailand’s Nawaphon Por Chokchai last March 13 in France but that was also called off.
Despite the postponements, the 38-yearold Donaire (40-6 win-loss record with 26 knockouts) train regularly at the
Givans Taekwondo Academy in Las Vegas.
The southpaw
Oubaali, 34, is unbeaten in 17 fights with 12 knockouts.