Return of the Prodigal Son: Donaire Back to Top Rank
By Manny Piñol
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 05 Jul 2011
In a week or two and after a little more fine-tuning, a new agreement between world bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire, Jr. and his promoter, Top Rank, is expected to be signed ending months of inactivity for the talented Fil-American boxer.
The new agreement, which according to those in the know would be a totally new promotional contract covering another three years, would effectively lead the 28-year-old Philippine-born American fighter out of a limbo resulting from an ill-advised move to sign up with Golden Boy Promotions while his contract with rival Top Rank Promotions was still effective.
It was a move made right after his scintillating victory over Mexican Fernando Montiel and reportedly precipitated by an eye-popping $1 million signing bonus offered by Golden Boy.
The risky move backfired when the arbiter of the dispute ruled that Golden Boy's act of signing up Donaire away from Top Rank violated an earlier settlement agreement where both parties pledged that they would not touch each other's fighters.
Added to that, the grounds cited by Donaire's lawyer in jettisoning Top Rank which was the failure of that group to fulfill the 3-fight a year provision in the contract was easily refuted by Bob Arum's legal team. It was proven that Donaire suffered injuries during the period thus preventing him to fight.
Effectively stymied and his future looking bleak due to inactivity, I was told that Donaire's lawyers linked up with Bob Arum's team and started discussing reconciliation starting about two weeks ago. This was apparently the reason why Donaire and his equally controversial wife stayed away from the limelight.
The self-imposed media blackout was considered a must to gag this sometimes brash young fighter who has the penchant of shooting himself in the foot with his tactless pronouncements and actions.
Early on, he earned the ire of Filipino boxing fans when, as part of the TV coverage team for the Pacquiao-Marquez II, he declared that he believed Marquez won the fight over the Filipino boxing icon.
Then, he offended a lot of Filipino sensibilities when he projected himself as a deprived and neglected child prior to his fight against Montiel and dumped his father-trainer Nonito Sr., accusing his father publicly of stealing training money and continuously pestering him with requests for money to support the older man's girl friend based in Cebu City.
Feeling the heat and negative reaction from Filipino boxing fans, Donaire and his wife arranged a well-documented "reconciliation" with his father and mother. His father, however, was never taken back as member of the training team and now works as trainer for his older brother, Glenn and at least two other boxers from the Philippines.
Just when his public image and acceptability were improving, Donaire did the unthinkable: Jump over to Golden Boy while he still had a live contract with Top Rank.
Worse, his wife, Rachel Marcial, an American citizen of Filipino descent, made scathing remarks against Top Rank's Bob Arum in an interview following Donaire's signing with Golden Boy.
Four months after his spectacular fight against Montiel which undoubtedly raised his popularity and market value, Donaire and his team apparently realized that there was no other way out of the bind but heed the overtures of Top Rank to "come back home" and talk things over.
What made his predicament even worse was the fact that since he has not defended the title he won from Montiel, the World Boxing Council (WBC) may end up stripping him of the bantamweight title. Although that is not a serious problem for name fighters like Donaire, it could certainly affect his career.
The more serious problem actually is not being able to cash in on the intense interest on his blooming career. Already he has passed off a title fight against the World Boxing Association (WBA) bantamweight champion Anselmo "Chemito" Moreno of Panama which could have earned him a decent $500,000.
Obviously, there would be an arrangement between Top Rank and Golden Boy to effectively settle the problem. Or it could just be between Donaire and Golden Boy with Top Rank standing behind the Fil-Am bantamweight champion.
I mean, Donaire could not just shake the hands of Oscar dela Hoya and Richard Schaefer and say thank you without compensating Golden Boy for the $1 million signing bonus given to him and the other expenses.
And how does Bob Arum feel about the scathing words issued by Donaire's wife?
"Bob is 80 years old. He has been through this many times in his life. He will just shrug this off," said a Top Rank insider I talked to last week.
The only issue being resolved now is when Donaire will be able to fight again. "The September card is filled up. November (Pacquiao-Marquez III) is done and October is not ideal because of the World Series," said the Top Rank insider.
But that should be the last of Donaire's worries right now. Knowing Bob Arum, he will certainly be able to work something out.
So, all is well that ends well.
Nonito Donaire Jr. comes out of another self-inflicted predicament, wiser and hopefully humbler.
(Note: In my previous column, I named Raul Caiz Sr. as the referee of the Fernando Montiel-Z Gorres fight. I was wrong. He was one of the three judges. The referee of that fight was Samuel Viruet.)
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Manny Piñol.
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