Would fans return to watch another Nonito Donaire corrida?

That was a shabby job they did in shoving former world welterweight boxing champion Joshua Clottey on the spot following Nonito Donaire Jr.’s dull, tasteless defense of his twin world bantamweight crowns last Sunday.
Clottey, thought to have retired in shame following that anomalous clamp-up against Manny Pacquiao in March 2010, returns to the ring next month in New York against Calvin Green (21-6-1, 13 KOs).
But overeager pundits would swear Clottey was in the ring in the person of Argentine Omar Narvaez, who was openly accused of causing the boring bout by firming up into an unshakeable concrete wall for practically the entire second half of the 12-round championship.
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Of course, it was not Clottey but a difficult bull who stood his ground against Donaire.
If the fight deteriorated and bubbled sick like a spoiled dish, it was because Donaire failed to provide sharpness and fire.
The matador allowed himself to be confused by a tough if not brutish bull.
Noted Tom Hauser, author of the epochal bio Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times: “The fight began with Narvaez fighting cautiously and Donaire biding his time, waiting for his opponent to make a mistake; it went on and finished with Narvaez fighting cautiously and Donaire biding his time, waiting for his opponent to make a mistake.”
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Well, all big fighters at one time or another would be faced with this silly obstacle.
Hauser explained that, last Sunday, Donaire was a finely tuned Porsche, with Bob Arum revving up the engine for a test drive to super stardom. Unfortunately for Donaire, he hit a speed bump; he “didn’t careen off the road, but it slowed him down a bit.”
At least it was not a concert wherein the featured tenor had croaked after missing the cathartic pitch.
Donaire will be back and there are prayers he would be facing (corned beef) cans that would be easier to open, noted international boxing correspondent Antony Andales.
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Speaking of concerts, we missed a recent book launching at the Manila Hotel due to an unforeseen kitchen event.
The featured volume, Lush Life: Essays from 2001-2010, was a collection of masterpieces by novelist-poet Alfred Yuson, plain Krip to readers of his famous column.
The articles, no doubt, are all KO pieces, so there’s no chance of readers ever blaming a literary Clottey for stealing a sparkle from any of the splendid essays.
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The back cover blurb notes that there are most distinguished stories “antedating by decades trends and techniques mistakenly labeled new today… Yuson’s short stories… have some echoes of Nick Joaquin and anticipate Miguel Syjuco.
Please share this excerpt from a piece on Manny Pacquiao:
“We’ll cherish it for decades, of course, the way March 16, 1960, would forever be etched in our hearts and minds when Gabriel ‘Flash’ Elorde drew a collective whoop from the confines of the Big Dome, to resound all over Cubao and well beyond, when he knocked out junior lightweight titlist Harold Gomes in the 7th round to give us a world champion.
Nearly half a century later, ten days before he would turn 30 and 18 days before Christmas Day, Manny Pacquiao advanced the holiday cheer by carving out a masterful underdog triumph over Oscar De La Hoya, a boxing legend… the signal and the delirious whoop echoed and re-echoed through our cities and around our islands, all over the world, in fact, from the MGM Grand to our Mideast Netizens and through SMS on roam.”
Regarding the Donaire fight, Krip Yuson says It was corny.
“The Argentine was no Manu Ginobili, puro block nang block.”