By Mitch Abramson
 
Nonito Donaire has made quite an impact at 118 pounds, winning a pair of bantamweight titles. But he’s not going to be there for long. At a public workout for the media on Tuesday, Donaire, along with his manager, Cameron Dunkin, laid out what is essentially their grand master plan for his career trajectory, which consists of marching up the weight classes like a current-day Manny Pacquiao (well, maybe the hike isn’t that steep.)

The basis for his rise in weight is his increased difficulty in making the bantamweight weight-limit and a desire for increased visibility against better-known opponents that he can show off his abilities against, Donaire said at the Kingsway Boxing Gym in Manhattan before his bout on Saturday against Omar Narvaez at Madison Square Garden.

“122, how I fare at 122- then I’ll move up to featherweight,” Donaire said. “If I can handle the featherweight guys like Gamboa and Juan Manuel Lopez then I will move up to lightweight to see how I fare from there, but it’s a step by step process. Right now, what I’m thinking about is taking on [Omar] Narvaez and them moving up to 122 and see how I fare from there. That’s the glory of time. You can do it step by step and just enjoy yourself while you’re doing it.”

Here’s how Dunkin described the blue-print for his rise in weight and his subsequent success that he hopes will accompany it.

“At 122, I think he’s going to be better than what he is now,” Dunkin began. “He wants to be at 122, which I always said would be his greatest weight. I think his next two weight divisions- 122 and 126- are going to be great for him. There’s a ton of opponents. You have [Wilfredo] Vazquez Jr., you have [Jorge] Arce, Juan Manuel Lopez [at 126], you have some great opponents. So he’s not going to hurt for opponents. It’s all about what he wants to do to be great. You know, 122, grab a belt. Then he wants to go to 126 then he wants to go to 130 and he’s even talking 135 but one step at a time. But at 122, I think he’s going to be better than what he is now.”

Mitch Abramson covers boxing for the New York Daily News and BoxingScene.com.

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