By Chris Robinson

For the first time in a while, Nonito Donaire seemed to feel 100% within himself during his 9th round dissection of former champion Toshiaki Nishioka inside of the Home Depot Center in Carson, California on Saturday night.

In an HBO-televised attraction, the 29-year old Donaire overcame a listless effort from his Japanese foe early on before dropping him with a left uppercut in the sixth round while ending matters three rounds later following another knockdown, this one coming from a brisk counter right hand.

Shortly after his performance, one that saw his record climb to 30-1 with 19 knockouts, Donaire spoke with myself and my colleague Ryan Burton of BoxingScene.com inside of his dressing room.

Nursing an injured left but still as upbeat as I have ever seen him, Donaire spoke candidly about his drubbing of Nishioka while taking some time to eye what exactly he feels his future may hold.

This is what the “Filipino Flash” had to share...

Thoughts on the Nishioka victory and dealing with his injured hand…

“I feel good, man. People got to understand, if I was impatient, he’ll catch me. I didn’t want to be impatient. I tried to use my jab; my hand was hurting me like crazy. You saw how big it was, the cut. It’s really bad. It was just that. We had to set up differently and we had to do a different game. But Nishioka’s a tough dude. If you mess with him and get caught with his big punch, that would have been it. But I didn’t feel his power at all. That’s why I got confident a little bit. As long as I can hold my guard up and not get caught with a punch I don’t see, his power wouldn’t be as strong. We just kept watching and just being patient, and when I did throw that jab, set him up until in the mid-rounds when it was hurting me like crazy. I know this was a different take, I had to look at it differently. We worked with the straight and that was it.”

Showing up for the big fights…

“You know what? I feel great. I didn’t lose so much weight. I had about a pound or two the last day. But I wasn’t dried out. If you look at the weigh-ins, everybody was so dry, I wasn’t. For big fights, I just know how to show up and I showed up.”

Advantages in the ring…

“Speed, power, because I have power, but most of all to see everything that is going on in that ring. And to be a step ahead and set up a punch and set up something that will hurt them. I set up an uppercut, I set up the right hand. Just to be precise and to be able to see everything is the biggest advantage of me but it’s a bonus that I had the speed and the power.”

Nishioka fighting back courageously after getting knocked down in the sixth round…

“I think it was his pride. I have great respect for Nishioka. He came out there. A lot of guys who got hurt would have been running around and covering up like crazy. But he came out there, knowing that ‘I want to win this fight, this is my last fight’ and that’s what he had in his heart. And that’s why I respect the guy a lot. The only reason why a lot of those guys previous to him survived is because they were afraid to get knocked out. Nishioka didn’t have any fear, but he had the heart and tried to knock me out. You saw, he kept tossing and throwing the punches and he’s a true warrior.”

Driven by a challenge…

“It depends. I want to fight everyone that I can in this division. There’s a lot of good fighters that I can fight, but for now we want to rest and heal this hand. But, if given the opportunity that the fight doesn’t happen, I’m going to move up to 126 and find a challenge to me. A challenge is what drives me.”

Not listening to the feedback…

“If I start listening to people’s opinion, I would be hurt and distraught by my haters. I’m honored that they put me in their pound for pound list. I do the things that I do, not because of that reason, because of my love for the sport. Because, I want to keep going and keep reaching the very top of what I can do in this game.”

Appreciating the support…

“First of all, it’s for boxing. It doesn’t matter what type of Nonito fans you are; hate or supporter. But I love the supporters. They’ve given me a lot of push and I want to thank them for just being there to support me throughout and I hope they enjoyed the fight. It was just that Nishioka was a tough guy and we needed to set up the punch and we did. Nishioka had the heart to fight me. But, again, to everybody, I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting me.”