by Ronnie Nathanielsz
Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire has proved to be a hit in Japan where he spent Christmas with his wife Rachael and her family as well as his mother before leaving for San Francisco on Monday.
Donaire was featured guest along with other top Japanese athletes and entertainers including WBC super featherweight champion Takahiro Aoh at a Christmas party hosted by Dr. Osama Kato.
The venue of the celebration was the Hyatt Regency Tokyo Shinjuku and the party started at 6:00 p.m.
The Inquirer was told that Donaire was “a hit especially when he sang and started dancing. Everybody started to dance. He was like the Pied Piper of Hamlin.”
The report said that “everybody was so respectful and waited for tnheir turn to take pictures” with the WBC Continental Americas bantamweight champion who battles WBC/WBO champion Fernando “Cochulito” Montiel at the Mandalay Bay Resort Hotel and Casino on February 19.
Montiel won the WBC title with a stunning 4th round TKO of highly favored southpaw champion Hozumi Hasegawa and most Japanese are hoping that Donaire who has a growing following in Japan woukld be able to win the title and somehow avenge Hasegawa’s defeat.
Donaire gets down to serious training when he returns to the US on Monday to resume training at the Undefeated Gym in San Carlos City, California.
In an interview with the Inquirer, Donaire said he was looking forward eagerly to the Montiel fight and said “right now I’m ready and like I mentioned every time I’m in that ring you will see more of the real Filipino Flash.”
He said that after his dominating 4th round knockout of former world bantamweight champion Wladimir Sidorenko his “confidence is much higher and when I am at one hundred percent I can beat anybody.”