How gratitude brought new life to Nonito Donaire’s career

MANILA, Philippines – Gratitude.

It doesn’t explain exactly how Nonito Donaire Jr stayed on his feet for the second half of his most recent fight against Cesar Juarez, though bleeding from his right eye and winded from throwing knockout bombs at an iron-chinned opponent with nothing to lose.

But it’s the beginning of understanding.

There were moments where it seemed that the 33-year-old Donaire had run out of steam in that fight – and in his career. If any lingering doubts from his recent setbacks remained in Donaire, he might not have fought his way out and won the WBO junior featherweight title.

“I was physically challenged in every way. Mentally, physically and spiritually,” Donaire (36-3, 23 knockouts) tells Rappler.com. “I had to dig deep in order for me to make it through. That was definitely a fight that had my soul in it.

“The guy, it was just incredible, he had like a separate armor.”

What has “The Filipino Flash” fighting like he’s hungry to remain at the top of the sport is his newfound appreciation for success, in and out of the ring, and for what he must do to attain it.

Thank you

“Gratitude, something that I didn’t have as I was becoming more successful,” says Donaire, who arrived in the Philippines on Thursday, December 17, and will spend the holidays here with family.

“But now each day I say thank you, each night I say thank you. I’m thankful for each day that I’m alive, that I get to see my kids, that I get to hug my wife. I get to spend time with my sons and see them grow.”

“Before, every time that I would wake up in the morning to go to the gym, it was a struggle, it was work. I had to drag my feet to get out of bed to the gym. I’m always complaining, ‘Oh God, this is gonna suck.’ Now I’m like, ‘I’m thankful to be in this gym, I’m gonna make the most of it.’”

Donaire, a pro for nearly 15 years, has grown as a fighter and a man in the public. He exploded on the boxing scene as the shy prodigy who upset Vic Darchinyan in 2007 to win the flyweight title. He grew into a flashy rising star, tearing through the bantamweight divisions amid a messy split with his father/trainer Nonito Sr. 

He then became the pound-for-pound candidate who won the BWAA Fighter of the Year award in 2012, even as his skills subtly eroded and he relied more on his punching power.

Donaire admits he had a hard time enjoying his success due to self-esteem issues he had endured as a child growing up in the Bay Area town of San Leandro, California. Despite his growing fame, he had trouble putting his past behind him.

“Growing up I was always told I wasn’t good enough. Growing up I was always told that I’m nothing. In school I was always treated like nothing,” said Donaire a 4-division world champion.

“So deep within my self conscious, I felt like I was nothing. The more that I was becoming successful, the more that my self-sabotaging persona came out. The bigger the success, the more weight that was on my shoulders.”

“I realized that in all the success that I had, the belts, the championships, all the awards, in my head I felt like I didn’t deserve them. That’s why I was never thankful for them, because I felt like they belonged to somebody else.”

Now a grown man with two young sons and a wife, Donaire has put losses to Guillermo Rigondeaux and Nicholas Walters behind him, reconciled with his family and brought back his father as trainer.

Donaire’s re-emergence as a titleholder adds color to the 122-pound division, where Rigondeaux remains the lineal champion despite being stripped by the WBO and WBA due to inactivity, and IBF champ Carl Frampton and WBA titleholder Scott Quigg are set to clash on February 27 in a major European showdown.

To-do list

A chance at avenging the unanimous decision loss to Rigondeaux remains high on his to-do list. Donaire says he fought a one-dimensional fight in New York City, and wants the chance to do it over.

“In order for him to convince me that he’s better than me, he has to do it twice,” said Donaire.

“In the fight I’ve seen so many mistakes that I should’ve capitalized on but the reason that I couldn’t is that the muscle memory that I created in training was just the left hook and that’s the only thing that I knew how to throw.”

The winner of the Frampton-Quigg unification bout would make for a high-profile matchup for Donaire, while promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank has also floated the idea of pitting Donaire against unbeaten contender Jessie Magdaleno (22-0, 16 KOs) or former IBF featherweight titleholder (and Donaire’s one-time gym mate) Evgeny Gradovich (20-1-1, 9 KOs).

That’s for him to worry about another day. For now, Donaire’s priority is his first holiday season spent in the Philippines as a family man.

“That’s up to the guys to make it happen. Whatever decision they make, my main focus is to sit down and relax and have time with my family to enjoy the holidays.” – Rappler.com

Ryan Songalia is the sports editor of Rappler, a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) and a contributor to The Ring magazine. He can be reached at ryan.songalia@rappler.com. Follow him on Twitter at @RyanSongalia.