by Dennis 'dSource' Guillermo
They say if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere else in the world.
As for Nonito Donaire, Jr. (27-1-0, 18KOs), his "Welcome to New York" party was crashed by a party-pooper named Omar Narvaez last October. Not that Narvaez defeated him, actually, Donaire scored a shutout win against the then-undefeated Argentinian World Champion. And as much as that sounds like a successful outing for most fighters and most cities, mind you, we are talking about Donaire and New York.
Donaire wanted to put on a show so badly for the New York crowd that packed Madison Square Garden to see him, that he considered the shutout win against an undefeated and long-tenured World Champ in Narvaez a disappointment and apologized to the crowd after the fight. Narvaez was defensive the entire fight and refused to engage and put himself in harm's way.
Leave it up to promoter Bob Arum to find the silver lining.
With the positive response of the New York boxing fan base toward Donaire last October, Arum announced in New York this week that he is looking to bring back Donaire to "The Theater" inside Madison Square Garden, the same place where Donaire beat Narvaez last Oct. 22.
This time, he'll be tapping a fighter that will surely come to fight in 28-year-old former WBO super bantamweight champion Wilfredo Vazquez, Jr. (21-1-1, 18KOs) of Puerto Rico, and the fight is likely to land in February 2012.
Vasquez is the son of former World Champ Wilfredo Vasquez, and suffered the first defeat of his career last May against Jorge Arce via 12th round TKO loss, in a fight that he was winning. Vasquez dropped Arce in the fourth round and was leading in the judges' scorecards prior to Arce's late rally in the final 3 rounds.
Vasquez bounced back from that loss with a 3rd-round KO win over Roberto Leyva in Puerto Rico last October.
Aside from his desire for redemption, Vasquez will be bringing with him the backing of the huge Puerto Rican boxing fan base in New York, in a fight that will surely create a lot of buzz and fireworks inside the ring. Vasquez is a definite threat and will bring power, youth and a lot of pressure against Donaire, who will be moving up to 122 for the first time.
Back from a month long vacation in the Philippines for his church wedding with wife Rachel, Donaire started training for the first time yesterday, Nov. 29 at a local Las Vegas gym. "It felt great!" Donaire said.
As a foot note, Donaire also gets a chance to avenge countryman Marvin Sonsona's humiliating 4th round KO loss to Vasquez in Puerto Rico back in Feb. of 2007, wherein Sonsona was being trained by Donaire's father, Nonito Donaire, Sr.
