THE DONAIRE FATHER-SON SAGA: THE SEQUEL
By Manny Piñol
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 09 Feb 2009
Hurting words were traded between world flyweight champion Nonito Donaire, Jr. and his father-trainer, Nonito Sr., following a bitter break-up a few months earlier.
But if the latest words floated were to be the gauge, it seems inevitable that the father and son team would soon kiss and make up, especially with a prospective rematch with world superflyweight champion Vic Darchinyan looming like a dark cloud in the horizon.
Listen to this:
Nonito Donaire Sr., talking to me and reminiscing how he developed his two sons into fighters: "I would hold their hands, Boyet (Glenn) and Junjun (Nonito Jr.), and together we would run in the early morning. I would virtually pull them just to make them jog. I never imagined they would be where they are now."
Or this:
Nonito Jr. talking to WBO bantamweight champion Gerry Penalosa about cutmen: "For me, the best cutman in the world is my dad."
Nonito Sr. spoke like a father who remembered the days when he would carry his sons on his shoulders, give them comfort and boost their confidence, and wondering why one of them is gone.
Nonito Jr.'s words betrayed his longing for the security that his father gave him, the whispers of encouragement during the hard training and the comforting touch of a father when he was in pain.
"I think they will talk and work together again. I can tell it," said Gerry Penalosa who trains with Nonito Jr. in Baguio City to prepare for his Feb. 21 Cebu City tune up fight and his eventual big engagement with WBO superbantamweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez.
I personally feel that same way too. In my conversations with Nonito Sr., who helps prepare Rolando Magbanua, Jundy Maraon, Glenn Porras and my other boxers for the Cebu card, he speaks of his son, the champion, with fondness but at the same time, expresses the hurt that he felt.
There are just a few things that must be done now by all parties involved to bring back together the tandem that dealt Darchinyan his only humiliating defeat.
First, Nonito Jr. must initiate the move. A call, or better still a visit in Cebu City, to his father would break the ice.
Second, all three of them -- Nonito Sr., Jr., and Nonito Jr.'s wife, Rachel -- must come to grasp with reality.
Reality No. 1. Nonito Sr. must accept the fact that the son whom he carried on his shoulders and whose hands he held as they jogged is already a married man and is deeply in love with his wife.
Reality No. 2. Nonito Jr. must realize that everything that he is now as a boxer is a result of the sacrifices of his father and that there is no other trainer or cutman who could give him the comfort and confidence but Nonito Sr.
Reality No. 3. Rachel, the wife, must understand the relationship between the father and son and appreciate the fact that her husband, the boxer, needs his father, the trainer and cutman. She should leave the physical side of the boxing career of her husband to the care of the father and must never attempt to act as trainer and physical conditioner.
All painful words said should be forgotten and must never be said again.
If they all could agree to this, the feared Donaire father and son tandem will come to rise again to give Darchinyan what he has been yearning for -- a chance to prove that his knockout loss to Nonito Jr. was a fluke.
Nonito Sr., Jr. and Rachel back in each other's arms?
That would be a beautiful sight. It would certainly make fathers like me very happy and the Filipino boxing fans ecstatic.
Let's do it.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Manny Piñol.
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