Boxing legend, trainer rank Donaire among elite boxers

Filipino boxing sensation Nonito Donaire Jr. now ranks among the world’s elite fighters, according to the legendary Roy Jones Jr. and a top trainer.

Former pound-for-pound boxing king Roy Jones Jr. said Donaire is in the same league as Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr., the two best boxers in the world today.

Donaire scored a scintillating second-round technical knockout over Fernando Montiel Saturday night (Sunday in Manila) to snatch his World Boxing Council and World Boxing Organization bantamweight titles in an HBO-televised championship fight at the Mandalay Bay Casino Resort in Las Vegas.

Jones said in a post-fight interview that he has not seen the kind of boxing finesse of Mayweather and the punching power and explosiveness of Pacquiao demonstrated by Donaire in dispatching Montiel in just six minutes of their title fight.

“Nobody else comes close to Pacquiao and Mayweather,” said Jones, the only second man middleweight champion to go up in weight and win the world heavyweight title.

“Mayweather would be No. 1 if he was active. Pacquiao is up there now . . . and Donaire belongs in the same elite league,” he added.

Jones, an HBO boxing analyst and former top pound-for-pound boxer in the 90s, thinks Donaire, 28, would eventually get the No. 1 pound-for-pound slot, if he stays focused and keeps his winning ways.

“Watch this kid [Donaire]. All three of them are pound-for-pound best. It ain’t about a popularity contest,” Jones stressed. “It’s about who does the job. This kid does the job. I see this kid doing some special things that not many fighters can do.”

Donaire’s trainer Robert Garcia thinks Donaire could be just as good as Pacquiao “or even better as a fighter,” referring to his ward’s combination of boxing skill and power.

“We get one Manny maybe every 100 years, so maybe we cannot get the same in Nonito because it’s just something unbelievable the way Nonito is turning out to be as good or even better as a fighter,” Garcia said.

Garcia, a Mexican-American for¬mer world featherweight champion, thinks Donaire has a long way to go and could actually follow in Pacquiao’s footsteps of wining multiple titles in different weight classes.


“Manny’s got something that we don’t see that often and we might not see any time soon,” Garcia said, referring to Pacquiao eight world titles in as many weight classes.

“But I know that Nonito is very skillfull and could be as good or better,” he added.

For all these positive comments, Donaire insists he would be happy being second to his Filipino boxing idol.

“I just came out there believing in this talent that God had given me. I actually predicted this second round knockout about three months ago,” said Donaire, who now has won world titles in three weight categories.

“I don’t mind being No. 2. I have the utmost respect for Manny Pacquiao. I’m happy being No. 2, if that’s what people want to call me,” he said.

“I’m happy and grateful for the people I have supporting me, that makes me No. 1 with them,” he added.

BY JUN MEDINA