By Mitch Abramson
Rachel Donaire, the attention-getting wife of bantamweight champ, Nonito Donaire, clarified her remarks made about Manny Pacquiao’s wife, Jinkee at a recent Manhattan press conference, saying she meant no disrespect. Bob Arum, who promotes Nonito, and once questioned Rachel’s manner of dressing, calling her all “tarted up,” apologized again for those comments, and Nonito said there were no bad feelings toward Arum and Top Rank, who has promoted the Filipino fighter since 2008, even through a brief dispute with Golden Boy earlier this year when Arum made the remarks.
“Sometimes even adults can be kids sometimes,” Nonito said at the final press conference for his bout with undefeated Omar Narvaez for Donaire’s WBC and WBO bantamweight titles on HBO’s Boxing After Dark telecast at Madison Square Garden.
“Sometimes we say something because we hear something different from other people and we tend to believe it’s worse than that. But right now, [my] relationship with Top Rank is great. I’m proud to be here, and now we’re fighting at MSG. It’s all amazing. With me, as long as it’s ok with my wife, I’m always the type of guy to forgive people.”
For a brief time, Donaire was entwined in a legal dispute between Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank. In the middle of the dispute, Arum made some unkind comments toward Donaire’s wife, Rachel, concerning her style of dress, describing it as “tarted up” on an internet report. Suddenly, the blogosphere was abuzz with Arum saying that Rachel “dresses like a hooker.”
Nonito was at first offended.
“You’re a man, you protect your wife, that’s what you're there for,” Nonito said. But after Arum apologized for the comments, all was forgiven.
“I made up with everyone,” Arum said. “I apologized. I was the first one to admit that I shouldn’t have said it, and I apologized for it. What else am I going to do? And we’re on good terms.”
Rachel also explained her comments toward Jinkee, Pacquiao’s wife. She was reported as being critical of the way Jinkee dresses.
“I never said that,” she said. “I don’t know where it came from. The only thing I ever said about Pacquiao’s wife is that the fact that she does wear- there’s a difference in how we both grew up. She grew up in a poor country. I grew up in the states. I’m not really brand oriented. I’m not the type that’s like, ‘Oh, I’m wearing this, I’m wearing that.’ I don’t care. And I pride myself on shopping at the outlet stores and things like that, being able to pull off something that’s only $40. And the only thing I said about her is that, of course, with the money that they have, the money she spends on outfits is equivalent to the money we have and the money that I spend on my outfits. And that’s pretty much all I said.”
She went on: “If I had [her money] I would spend that,” Rachel said. “But considering I don’t- I’m very budget oriented as far as if I’m going to wear something. Usually before a fight, I’ll go to the outlet stores and go shopping for like $20 tops because there’s so many events in the media for him.”
She thinks her upbringing in the States has a lot to do with her style of dress, which can be on the ostentatious side. During Thursday’s final press conference, she arrived in fishnet stockings, a little black skirt and a form-fitting top.
“Because of the fact that I grew up in the U.S. and there’s a lot of opportunities to dress a certain way without having to splurge on one outfit, just I guess dressing on a budget,” she said. “And I guess that’s what they took out of context. Because, like I said, for that part of the country, they’re very- I’ve been over there a lot [and it’s like] what purse are you wearing, what shoes are you wearing, and to me it shouldn’t matter. I should be able to spend $10 and it shouldn’t matter.”
Mitch Abramson covers boxing for the New York Daily News and BoxingScene.com.