By Ronnie Nathanielsz

WBO/IBF super bantamweight champion Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire, who is deep in training for his clash with WBC super champion Toshiaki Nishioka of Japan at the Home Depot Center on October 13, “looks good” according to his trainer Robert Garcia while Donaire added “I’m ready to go.”

Donaire told BoxingScene.com/Manila Standard “I am feeling really good” and indicated he had sparred 9 rounds, 10 rounds which have “gone great and my stamina is good right now and after sparring for ten more rounds we’ll be ready to go.”

Donaire said he had been sparring with an outstanding amateur southpaw from Detroit named Eric De Leon who has won several tournaments in the US. He said the young amateur “is very, very fast and I’m getting a lot of help from the youngster like him.”

Donaire disclosed that trainer and former world champion Robert Garcia will bring in another sparring partner to the Undisputed Gym in San Carlos City, California to work out with Donaire.

He said one of the sparring partners is lightweight Oscar Diaz, a southpaw who works out in Garcia’s gym in Oxnard, California.

Donaire said that Garcia who is also training Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios for a showdown against another hard-hitting fighter in Mike Alvardo keeps visiting his training camp to check on how he’s progressing will drive down to the gym later this week and will remain with him in Carson City during the last week before the fight.

The four division world champion said “so far everybody has been working together really well and everybody is working very hard.”

Donaire said he wished to thank all his fans for all their support. I expect this to be a very good fight and very exciting and hopefully I will deliver a good performance to pay back for everything they’ve done for me.”

In an earlier telephone conversation Garcia said Donaire “looks really good and is better than I expected. He’s throwing his jab real good and has good defense.”

Garcia however warned that Donaire “will have to be very careful because Nishioka is a very experienced fighter."

However, the trainer told us “ Nonito is too fast, too smart and I think he will be able to control the fight from the beginning.” He said he would want Donaire to “go out there and have fun and put more punches, two-three combinations together at a time.”

Garcia said he is not sure whether the one year layoff would hurt Nishioka stating “it depends on who the fighter is, citing the case of Floyd Mayweather Jr who takes three years off and comes back and is better than ever. So we’ll never know unless Nishioka is one of those fighters who is really affected. But he’s good, he will train and he should be fine.”