Donaire vows to deck Bedak

MANILA, Philippines - Nonito Donaire exudes confidence two days before facing Zsolt Bedak in Cebu, vowing to stop the Hungarian challenger in six and keep his WBO super bantamweight crown before an expected huge crowd at the Cebu City Sports Center.

The five-division world champion Donaire is all primed up for his first title defense tomorrow, upbeat of improving his 36-3 card laced with 23 knockouts and dealing the former Olympian, who demolished Mexican Abner Mares in the first round in the Athens Olympics in 2004, his second defeat. Mares later became a three-division world titlist. 

Dubbed “The Time Has Come,” the event, presented by Top Rank, ALA Promotions, ABS-CBN Sports + Action and TFC, will be aired on free TV on ABS-CBN starting at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow with a telecast on ABS-CBN + Action at 1 p.m. Fans can also watch the fight on high-definition on ABS-CBN Sports + Action HD Ch 166 on April 25 at 10 p.m.

The bout will also be aired on SkyCable and Destiny Cable Pay-Per-View. Overseas Filipinos may catch the fight live via TFC (The Filipino Channel) on TFC’s IPTV and online TFC.tv.

Bedak also boasts of an impressive 25-1 slate with eight KOs, including Filipino fighter Ronnie Laput whom he stopped in seven to win the WBO Inter-Continental title in Austria in 2009. 

Bedak’s only loss came in the hands of former WBO super bantamweight champion Wilfredo Vasquez Jr. of Puerto Rico via 10th round knockout in a world title bout in 2010.

But the tough and resilient Bedak has won 10 consecutive fights since his 2010 defeat. Currently rated No. 4 122-pounder by the WBO, he also vowed to stun Donaire, claiming before Filipino media that he is in peak shape and that this is the most important fight of his career.

Donaire, on the other hand, outpointed Vasquez Jr. for the vacant junior featherweight world title in 2012.

Meanwhile, the live pay-per-view (PPV) telecast of the fight will be seen in the US and Canada via all major and many independent cable providers in both SD and HD.

A pre-fight countdown will start at 8 a.m. ET followed by the live telecast of the fight at 8:30 a.m. For fans who can’t access the early morning live telecast, a late afternoon replay will air at 5 p.m. ET. For cable system channel locations of the live PPV event and replays, viewers can click here and enter their zip codes: http://www.indemand.com/event/boxing-donaire-vs-bedak/. 

On Sunday and for one week, viewers will also be able to access the fight replay via Video On Demand on most cable systems.

For locations, viewer may go to Events On Demand categories and look for ring sports or event replay folders. The live telecast is distributed to most US cable systems by iN DEMAND. 

For details, visit sports.abs-cbn.com and follow ABS-CBN Sports’ official Facebook and Twitter accounts @abscbnsports.