CEBU, Philippines — Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire Jr. (40-6, 26KOs) is all set to challenge the undefeated WBC bantamweight titlist Nordine Oubaali (17-0, 12KOs) of France in the main event of a Showtime-televised Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) card on December 12 at the Mohegan Sun Hotel and Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut.
For sure, Donaire looks to add another piece of jewel to his treasure vault.
He’s been that doing over the years.
As a matter of fact, Donaire boasts of a plethira of accomplishments in his illustrious 19-year pro career, most notable among them is winning four world titles in different divisions - from flyweight to bantamweight, junior featherweight and featherweight.
But it seems that Donaire isn’t done yet from there.
Donaire yearns to seize a fifth world belt in a weight class lower than where he is right now, with eyes on becoming an undisputed super flyweight king.
Donaire actually won his first bout in the 115-pound class by decision against Mexico’s Rafael Concepcion to grab an interim title but he eventually moved up to bantamweight without getting a chance to fight for a regular world crown in the super flyweight.
Nearing the twilight of his career at 38 years old, Donaire wants to fill in that gap in his fistic journey and attain his goal to be a five-division world champion.
“I still want to go back down to 115 and get a title there and then go up to 130. I can do that,” Donaire told Dan Rafael of boxingscene.com. “When I was weighing in at the last fight with Inoue I was 117.5 but I had to drink a little bit of water because I was 116. So I don’t have a problem making that (115-pound) weight. I would want to stamp that fifth division. The only reason I couldn’t get that before was because everybody was running away from me at 115 and I couldn’t get the title.”
“It’s something I can do and something I want to do. After that I can say I am a five-division champion and then go up to 130 afterwards. My wife (and manager Rachel Donaire) is looking at me crazy right now. I’m getting that look right now. She’s telling me no 130,” he added.
Donaire may listen to his wife afterall. He said that a move to super flyweight next year is the most logical thing to do as it is loaded with the biggest names in the division such as Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez, Juan Francisco Estrada, Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, Kazuto Ioka, and his fellow countryman Jerwin Ancajas.
Of them all, Donaire puts Gonzalez No.1 in his hitlist.
“I think that would be a great fight with Roman,” Donaire said in the same report by Rafael recently. “And you have a lot of guys there that are incredible. I’ve seen them fight. I do look at those fights and I enjoy those fights. The little guys are incredible fighters. We just go in there and tee off with each other. All of that can happen, but right now the main focus is Oubaali.”