NONITO Donaire Jr. is bringing back his old team in his return fight against Vic Darchinyan on Nov. 9 in Texas.
The former champion posted on social media several photos of him and his estranged father Nonito Sr. while working with the mitts, which they haven’t done since 2008.
“First time working with Papang since 2008,” Nonito Jr. posted on Twitter and Facebook. “He’s still faster than me. LOL (laugh out loud). Feels good.”
The Donaires patched things up recently after years of unpleasant, highly publicized spat. Internet reports said the father will be taking back his place in Team Donaire, a development which Nonito Jr.’s head trainer Robert Garcia welcomed with delight.
The reunion is significant because one of the fights the father-and-son team worked together was when they crushed then world flyweight champion and favorite Darchinyan in the fifth round of their fight in 2007.
That spectacular knockout win put the younger Donaire (31-2, 20 KOs) on boxing’s radar screen, and it’s only fitting that the son’s first fight after getting reunited with his father was also against Darchinyan (39-5-1, 28 KOs).
Darchinyan scored two wins to earn another shot at Donaire who is raring to erase the stigma of his shocking and lopsided loss to Guillermo Rigon-deaux in New York City last April. Marc Anthony Reyes