PUTTING LIFE on hold for weeks at a time to spend one night dancing with death suggests a psyche driven not only by courage and purpose but also something deep inside that most of us simply cannot fathom.
We can see the rage of the boxer, but where was it hatched? We can see the conviction, too, but what is its nature? What ignites the fury behind the fists?
For Nonito Donaire, the brilliant 26-year-old super flyweight who recently moved from San Leandro to San Carlos, the answers are simple. Every punch is for family.That's where it gets complicated.
There is Nonito's father, Glenn Donaire Sr., who once trained him, to whom he no longer speaks. There is the older brother, Glenn Jr., whom young Nonito sought to emulate and to whom he insists there is brotherly love despite the distance. There is the wife, Rachel, herself a champion competitor. There is the boxing establishment as a whole, which not long ago took one look at the skinny kid and dismissed him, with prejudice.
And there is home, the Philippines. The Donaires left when Nonito was 10, yet he recalls the poverty, the frequent ridicule, the scars he received through trials administered by the mean streets. He is of, if not in, the homeland, for it lives within his heart and he feels its eyes upon him.
Wanting to impress them all, that's the baggage — and the ammo — Donaire (21-1, 14 KOs) takes into every fight. It will accompany him into the ring Saturday night when he faces Rafael Concepcion (13-3-1, 8 KOs) at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas for the WBA interim super flyweight title.
"I always go into the ring with the mentality that I am not a champion," Donaire says while training at the Undisputed Gym in San Carlos. "But I will be a champion."
Truth is Donaire recently relinquished the IBF flyweight belt he won 25 months ago. After years of being doubted, of hearing there was no audience for him and wondering if he could match the feats of his older brother, Nonito dropped a sizzling left hook that ended the night of previously undefeated champ Vic Darchinyan.
That would be the very same Darchinyan who had won all 28 of his bouts, one of which came nine months earlier while breaking the jaw of Glenn Donaire Jr.
Nonito's avenging punch sounded like a baseball bat hitting a side of beef. Ring Magazine labeled it the "Knockout of the Year." That the night was as cathartic as it was triumphant was apparent in the postfight interview with Showtime's Jim Gray.
Donaire thanked his parents, including his father, who at the time was in his corner. He thanked his promoter, Gary Shaw, who since has been replaced.
"(This) was for all the Filipinos out there who never believed in me," Donaire said. "But I did it. I proved you guys wrong. But I know that you're going to support me because I proved to the world that I'm something now."
From the controversial loss to Brian Viloria that ended his amateur career to being rejected at the outset of his pro career because of ethnicity, Donaire once had been so discouraged he was ready to quit. He had channeled that frustration into a marvelous and complete recovery.
"When I tried to sign with (a manager) and they would say Filipinos aren't marketable," he recalls. "I couldn't get signed with anybody."
That has changed, thanks to fellow Filipino Manny Pacquiao, now the No. 1 attraction in boxing. Donaire last year split with his father, married martial arts champ Rachel Marcial and also left Shaw when the promoter failed to generate enough bouts.
The agitation did not hurt Nonito's boxing. He made three defenses of his IBF belt, the last two for Bob Arum's Top Rank, stopping all three opponents. Having climbed to No. 7 on Ring's pound-for-pound world rankings, Donaire and Top Rank decided it was time to move up in weight.
Which brings him to Saturday night, where Donaire is favored against Concepcion in the pay-per-view bout.
He will fight, as always, for family, which in a way includes Pacquiao, who paved the road Donaire hopes to maintain and is, for many reasons, perhaps the last man he wants to disappoint
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