Nonito Donaire Jr., tries to reboot his storied career when he fights Mexican Cesar Juarez for the vacant World Boxing Organization super bantamweight title Friday night (Saturday morning Manila time) in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Both Donaire and Juarez tipped the scale at 122 pounds and looked all set to dispute the crown that was stripped from unbeaten Cuban Guillermo Rigondeaux due to inactivity.
The title was yanked out of Rigondeaux’s hands even after he defeated Filipino Drian Francisco last month.
Juarez, 24, is a rising star in the weight division with a 17-3-0 record and 13 stoppages. He has won five of his last six fights.
Yet the 33-year-old Donaire, a champion in four weight divisions, appeared to be looking past the Mexican slugger as he announced his intention to eventually forge a rematch with Rigondeaux or Nicholas Walters, another tormentor.
Donaire (35-3-0 with 23 KOs) was at the top of the boxing world, having won the consensus Fighter of the Year for 2012, when Rigondeaux stunned him with a unanimous decision in April of 2013 in New York City.
He climbed his way back to the spotlight and wrested the world featherweight crown over Simpiwe Vetyeka of South Africa in 2014. But the bigger Walters dealt him a shocking sixth-round knockout beating last year.
Amid a growing perception that he has come to the end of his career, Donaire knocked out William Prado and Anthony Settoul this year in trying to convince everybody that he still has enough in his tank.
“I had a great camp. But I know what must be done. I must win,” said Donaire, who said his KO to Walters was a blessing in disguise.
“When I was down on the canvas in the Walters fight, I thought to myself, ‘This is a blessing,’” Donaire told yahoo.com. “It was a blessing because I had lost my way, not giving boxing the respect it deserves. I was searching for something. I was unsatisfied.”
Donaire and Juarez are fighting on the card top-billed by lightweight Felix Verdejo, who will square off with Josenilson Dos Santos. Marc Anthony Reyes