Report: Donaire turns to Cuban trainer

MANILA, Philippines – Nonito Donaire Jr. has tapped the services of Cuban trainer Ismael Salas for his November 5 fight.

Veteran scribe Ronnie Nathanielsz reported on PhilBoxing.com that Salas will help supervise “the physical part [of Donaire’s training] in the next eight to 9 weeks of training.”

A boxrec.com profile of Salas says the trainer has worked with “world champions such as Danny Green, Yuriorkis Gamboa, Saen Sor Ploenchit, Yuandale Evans, and Kazuto Ioka.”

Interestingly, the Cuban is also the current trainer of WBA super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux, who defeated Donaire in 2013.

Donaire has turned to Salas following his amicable split with father and now former trainer Nonito “Dodong” Donaire Sr., who declined to train his son this time for personal reasons.

The Filipino-American fighter will defend his WBO super bantamweight title in the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao-Jessie Vargas bout in Las Vegas, possibly against prospect Jessie Magdaleno. – Dino Maragay