Full house assured for Donaire tiff vs Nishioka
NONITO Donaire Jr. stakes his WBO/IBF super bantamweight titles against Toshiaki Nishioka of Japan before a huge crowd on Oct. 13 (Oct. 14 in Manila) at Home Depot Center in Carson, California.
Top Rank boss Bob Arum declared through a conference call that all tickets in the 8,000-seater tennis stadium have been sold out except for the $35 seats which are up in the rafters.
“Everybody who loves boxing (will) come out to The Home Depot Center because they are going to see a card second to none. Two great fights and a terrific undercard and tickets reasonably priced. Almost all of the tickets are sold except for the $35 tickets. So for $35 you can watch history,” said Arum.
Serving as co-feature in the HBO-televised card is the fight pitting undefeated former world lightweight champion Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios against the similarly undefeated No. 1 junior welterweight contender “Mile High” Mike Alvarado.
Donaire is close to wrapping up his training camp in his build-up for the 36-year-old Nishioka, who has not lost since 2004. The Japanese hasn’t been on the ring for about a year since beating Rafael Marquez by unanimous decision for the WBC 122-lb crown he eventually vacated.
“I can’t mess around with this guy,” said Donaire. “That’s pretty much what it is. We have to take him seriously. You won’t see what you’ve seen from me lately.”
The Filipino Flash, who himself is on a 28-win spell, said he’s through “with the experimental phase” which he used in winning the WBO super bantamweight title against Wilfred Vazquez early this year and the WBO belt against Jeffrey Mathebula last July.
Donaire also promised to bring in the brand of game that made him one of the top fighters pound-for-pound and give boxing fans what they deserve.
“Nishioka is the top dog in this division, the same way (Fernando) Montiel was at 118. I have the guy I wanted at 122,” said Donaire.
