INQUIRER Sports

SAN CARLOS, CALIFORNIA ? WHEN Nonito Donaire Jr. fights Panama?s Rafael Concepcion in Las Vegas on Saturday, the recent IBF flyweight champion will take the next step toward an American dream he started as a picked-on 10-year-old in the Philippine province of Bohol.

After moving with his family from the Philippines to the working-class East Bay suburb of San Leandro, California, Donaire took the opportunity to reinvent himself.

?I was a little snotty-nosed, big-eared kid who didn?t believe that there was a tomorrow for me, and look where I am now,? Donaire said before a recent workout.

Donaire (21-1, 14 KOs) has progressed up the list of the world?s top pound-for-pound boxers while winning his last 20 fights. His fame is still in its nascent stages, both in his adopted home and back in the Philippines, yet his headlining spot atop the ?Pinoy Power? card at the Hard Rock suggests promoter Top Rank expects the Filipino Flash to get a whole lot bigger.

After years of struggles to get fights and management, Donaire actively pursues every opportunity, switching promoters and trainers?even when that trainer is his father. Although his relationship with Nonito Sr. collapsed along the way, Donaire is still chasing that first dream despite a few mixed feelings about the sport.

?I?m not a fighter,? he said. ?When I was growing up, I was very timid, shy, quiet. One time, my dad showed me (Arturo) Gatti fighting on TV. He said, ?Do you want to box?? I said, ?Hell, no!??

Donaire learned about boxing from his father, who listened to fights on the radio in their simple home in the Philippines. The family survived on his mother?s salary as a teacher and the meager profits from selling homemade candy. Meat and soda were rare feasts, and the kids often wore slippers and ragged clothes to school so they wouldn?t wear out their nice shoes and shirts.

Shortly after the family moved to San Leandro, living in a tough neighborhood near East Oakland, Donaire?s older brother, Glenn, began collecting trophies from amateur tournaments, getting attention that proved irresistible to him.

Donaire eventually fought in the 2000 US Olympic trials, but lost to Brian Viloria?now the IBF junior flyweight champion?in a discouraging decision that nearly drove him out of the sport. After turning pro in 2001, he spent about five years scrambling to cover his training expenses.

?When I had a chance to sign with managers in the past, I would hear that Filipinos are just not marketable,? Donaire said. ?In boxing chat rooms, they would make fun of Filipinos, say that they couldn?t break an egg. That really inspired me to work hard to prove them wrong.?

Manny Pacquiao changed all that in recent years, and Donaire realizes the debt he owes to the Philippines? most famous man?who once attended the school where Donaire?s mother taught fourth grade.

Fighting as a big underdog, Donaire won his title in July 2007 with a brain-bruising knockout of Vic Darchinyan, the veteran flyweight champ who had broken Glenn?s jaw nine months earlier. Donaire?s final punch?a gorgeous left hand thrown from his backstep?knocked senseless one of the lower weights? toughest fighters.

And after knocking out Raul Martinez in front of 17,000 roaring Filipinos in Quezon City in April, Donaire would love to fight in the Bay Area, where the Bohol boy?s life first turned in this improbable direction.