Arum learning how to display Donaire, unveiling of Aug. 15 Vegas event shows

July 2, 12:03 AMSF Boxing ExaminerColin Seymour

Previous Next

2 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the SF Boxing Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Repeating: Nonito Donaire is the most important boxer in the San Francisco Bay Area since James Jeffries was heavyweight champion about 100 years ago. Donaire is still flying under the radar in the Bay Area, where he has lived since he was 7 years old, but some of the details surrounding Bob Arum’s announcement Wednesday of Donaire’s Aug. 15 bout in Las Vegas illustrate the way Donaire’s Bay Area connections reverberate to the Philippines, as well as vice versa.

Donaire (21-1, 14 knockouts) and Panamanian Rafael Concepcion (13-3-1, 8 knockouts) will be battling for the WBA interim title in a bout for which Arum’s Top Rank Boxing is generating pay-per-view domestically while Solar Sports promotes the TV end in the Philippines. Steven Luevano, the featherweight champion, will appear in the Aug. 15 co-feature against Bernabe Concepcion of the Philippines.

Arum and Donaire fared well with this concept, aesthetically anyway, when the then-IBF flyweight champion defended his crown against Raul Martinez in the Philippines after Filipino-American Brian Viloria dethroned light flyweight champion Ulises Soliz. (Yes, Donaire has given up that belt this week to move up to 115 pounds.)

Although Arum’s subsequent attempts to pair Donaire with WBO super-flyweight titleholder Jose “Carita” Lopez at San Francisco’s AT&T Park fell through, his attempts to fuel Filipino-American enthusiasm in the Bay Area can only help in the quest to elevate Donaire’s visibility to a level worthy of his dazzling talent.

I have my doubts. My own embrace of Filipino-American fight fans hasn’t drawn huge readership, although there may be as many of 500 of y’all looking in now and then. But Arum’s faith in that demographic, buoyed by the enthusiasm surrounding Manny Pacquiao’s visit to a San Francisco Giants baseball game in April, suggests Donaire’s Bay Area boosters should be optimistic.

TRIBUTE TO ARGUELLO: Wednesday’s death of Nicaraguan legend Alexis Arguello elicited many statements of admiration, including from Arum and Donaire at the Las Vegas function.

Arguello, 57, who was elected mayor of the capital city, Managua, in 2008, was found dead of a gunshot wound to the chest that is believed to have been self-inflicted. He came to prominence in the mid-1970s as a bantamweight champion and eventually held a 140-pound belt.

"I have a complete collection of Alexis' boxing videos, every one of his big fights," Donaire said. "That's how I learned to throw a hook, by watching the way Alexis did it on video, while at the same time watching how he carried himself in and out of the ring. He really was a true gentleman, and that is how I try to behave at all times."

LATE WORD FROM DONAIRE: I got an e-mail from Donaire on Wednesday night via Facebook, presumably not long after he and wife Rachel returned home from Las Vegas. Their Vegas trip had scuttled my scheduled visit to the gym in San Carlos where he and Rachel have been training recently.

The e-mail was sent, ironically, while I was passing through San Carlos after a singing practice in San Mateo. Arrgh.

The e-mail was a response to my e-mail of May 8, which he had responded to about a week later. Still, this means we’ll be chatting by this weekend, and I’ll report back to y’all.