WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire is planning to start sparring hopefully next week according to his trainer/father “Dodong” Donaire.
“Dodong” told The Standard that “Nonito is doing good but hasn’t started sparring as yet. He is working the mitts, running, sprinting because he wants to be really in shape before he starts sparring.”
The trainer said they have picked Fredrick Bowen who was one of Nonito’s sparring partners when he trained for the Cesar Juarez clash for the vacant title, once again.
“I’m very happy because Nonito trains hard,” the elder Donaire added.
He said Nonite does his conditioning on Tuesdays and Thursdays and works on the punch-mitts and the other routines in the gym on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Donaire won the 122 pound title the second time around with a lopsided unanimous decision over Mexico’s Cesar Juarez who was ranked No.1 by the WBO while Nonito was No. 2 after he dropped Juarez twice in the 4th round but had to battle back in a brutal second half of the fight when Juarez suddenly showed amazing recuperative qualities and came on strong.
Donaire’s opponent in his title defense scheduled for April 23 at the Cebi City Sports Center is No. 4 ranked Zolst Bedak of Hungary, a former member of the Hungarian Olympic team, to the 2004 Athens Olympics.
At the Games, Bedak scored an impressive victory over Abner Mares who later became a world champion in the pro ranks.
Bedak reportedly fights very much like the original choice Evgeny Gradovich who declined to fight Donaire because the former featherweight champion was having a hard time to make the 122 pound limit and instead will fight a ten round bout against unbeaten Oscar Valdez who has a record of 18-0 with 16 knockouts on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley clash on April 9 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
