Nonito Donaire Sr.
SETTING RECORD STRAIGHT ON THE DONAIRE BREAK UP!
San Francisco, CA– Having known Nonito Donaire Sr. for quite a long time, I have found him to be a decent trainer who’s life evolved around his boxing sons, Nonito Jr. and his older brother Glenn. For those of you that have followed boxing longer than this Manny Pacquiao “rage” has run, you’d know that the father shopped these kids to just about every promoter and manager he could. When the subject of the fighting Donaire’s came up in a conversation with Hall of Fame promoter Don Chargin, he painted a different picture of Mr. Donaire, not one like Ward Cleaver of the “Leave it to Beaver” TV show of the 60s. I’ll get into that a bit later.
PAPA DONAIRE HATES THE FACT NONITO JR. IS A MAN NOW!
Having married a beautiful lady in his wife Rachael, herself a former Mixed Martial Arts champion in Tae Kwon Do, this is what pissed old man Donaire off as all of a sudden his married son wanted to make his own decisions. The father claims his assertive daughter in law drove a wedge between father and son and that Nonito should listen only to dad, instead of being a man that gets together with his wife to make decisions that affect their lives. Look, like her or not, Rachael isn’t some dumb broad sans education. She is extremely well spoken, knows something about boxing, and I feel has her husband’s best interests at hand when she says something.
Rachael Donaire
RACHAEL DIDN’T FLEECE THE COUNTRY LIKE IMELDA MARCOS!
The way some of the media portray her, Mrs. Donaire is like the second coming of Imelda Marcos, the wife of the corrupt bastard that ruled the Philippines with an iron fist, Ferdinand Marcos from 1965 to 1989. She spent millions of dollars (smuggled out billions) amassing one of the biggest collection of ladies shoes (sounds like President Marcos had a foot fetish) in the world, the woman was the wife, in my opinion, of a murderer, as I feel deep in my heart that he had the father of the current president Ninoy Aquino, Benigno Aquino killed as he stepped off an airplane onto a Manila airport in 1983. As for Mrs. Marcos, she and her hubby ripped of the Philippine people of billions of dollars and never paid a price for it. All Rachael has done is stand by her man, yet she is scorned by many who believe the story conjured up by Nonito Sr.
DAD’S GREED HELD THE DONAIRE BROTHERS BACK!
Several years ago, Don Chargin, hall of fame promoter that he is, was approached by a Filipino millionaire from Sacramento, CA. He wanted to set up a monthly salary, retirement funds, annuities, for this he was willing to throw down six figures to begin with. When Chargin took the deal to Nonito Sr., he flatly turned it down because according to Chargin, Nonito Sr. said, “What’s in it for me?” When Chargin again tried to get the father to be rational, he refused and the deal was pulled off the table. That’s why you saw the Donaire’s fighting for almost free anywhere they could get a fight in the early days.
SR. DONAIRE STILL WOULD HAVE GOT 10% AT LEAST!
Greedy, at least in the minds of both myself and Chargin, the Donaire brothers with Nonito Sr. running the show were a traveling act. Guam, the Philippines, small California hotels, this is where the Donaire bros. were fighting. Thus, under the guidance of papa, and without a real promoter, Nonito Sr. allowed both Glenn and Nonito to be “opponents,” which I felt accounts for Glenn’s first loss and Nonito’s only defeat. Glenn (17-4-1, 9 KOs) retired from boxing and is said to be driving a bus here in the SF Bay Area. Look unless he was getting paid, the kids were stuck being talented opponents. In the deal, the father would get 10% for training.
CREAM RISES & ROCKS TEND TO DROP
Nonito improved to the point where that even in the position of being an “opponent” he knocked out Vic Darchinyan on 7/7/07 in what was a major upset. 13 months later, Nonito marries Rachael and papa Donaire, not realizing that his son was no longer a kid, starts telling Jr. how to live his married life. That didn’t go over well and the two went their separate ways and the “Donaire Family Feud” show got its start. Nonito’s talent, even with his father’s poor guidance, again in my opinion, could not be ignored after the one-punch KO of Darchinyan. Glenn on the other hand, while capable, world class skills were just not part of his makeup.
Nonito Donaire Jr.
“THEY (MY FAMILY) WANT ME TO LOSE”
That’s what Nonito has told me on different occasions about his estranged father. In closing, I always felt that the “control freak” that Nonito Sr. was/is, wasn’t good for his sons. Yes, he did teach them the basics and mentored them. But there comes a time when all things come to an end. And luckily for Nonito Donaire Jr., he walked away from his father when he did. Because no matter how talented Nonito Jr. was/is, he wasn’t going to be a superstar with his dad running the show.
Pedro Fernandez