From boxing ring to small screen

Some 24 hours after retaining his International Boxing Federation (IBF) flyweight crown, I had the pleasure of chatting with Nonito Donaire Jr. in an interview arranged by Startalk (portions of which you will get to watch on the show this Saturday at 2:30 p.m. on GMA 7).

Nonito — or Jun-Jun — looked very relaxed seated across me and that wasn’t surprising at all since he had it easy on the day of his fight: He had quickly demolished in a technical knockout American Raul Martinez in the fourth round.

In a black vest over a white collarless shirt, his body was enviably lean you could put a fat-free label on him. That body — he tells me — is the result of endless training and diet: Mostly tuna and occasionally eggs, sometimes even without the yolk. (As a reward for all that discipline and deprivation, he gulped bottoms up a can of cold, cold soda — brand unspecified — after his fight. “It felt so good as it went down my throat!”)  

But when I asked him what Filipino food helped him gain all that strength to wipe out his opponent in Round 4, he laughingly tells me it was balut (fertilized duck egg). Nonito may have spent more than half of his life (he is 26) in the US (in the Bay Area, actually), but he remains a Filipino at heart — and in taste.

Born in Bohol, his family later moved to General Santos City where he and his siblings (he is the second of four kids) where initially raised. When he was 10, his family discovered that a great-grandfather had migrated to Hawaii decades and decades ago and had eventually obtained an American citizenship and that enabled them to live in the US.

His Tagalog remains fluent — although he claims to be more conversant in Cebuano. With his wife Rachel — a Filipina raised in the States — he has started to make another home base here in Manila (they maintain a home in Alabang Hills).    

The wife, incidentally, is into taekwondo and is also a very disciplined athlete. When he diets, so does she — so that he is not driven into any kind of food temptation. And when he trains, she is usually behind him — also sweating it out. 

This is one reason why he can claim that he owes much of his success as a boxer to his wife who can be a ferocious taekwondo fighter in and out of competitions. “Ako — duwag ako outside the ring,” he insists and it takes a real man to be able to say that.

Later, we make a scenario about how he always tries to finish his business in the ring fast because he is afraid his wife might step in and fight his opponent — “with her handbag and stilettos,” he laughs.

But how is it like when he watches his wife in her competitions? “Para akong babae — I freak out and worry for her,” he says and even jokes: “I sometimes am tempted to also get into the fight and hit her opponent with my own stiletto.” We really laugh hard over that one.

I can’t imagine how he is like at home — he must be a riot because he can be so funny and witty. No, he and his wife don’t have kids yet — “because we are waiting until we are both stable with our careers.”

In the meantime, they are just enjoying each other’s company — and their friends, too. To celebrate his victory, he is treating those very close to them to a trip to Bohol and they must be there right now as you read this.

By the way, Manny Pacquiao is also a good friend and it is the Gensan factor that binds them. Even their wives are friends — “they shop together,” volunteers Nonito.

This May, he is flying to Las Vegas to throw in moral support as Pacquiao squares it out on the ring with Ricky Hatton. From there, he returns to Manila to do the showbiz bit: Yes, he is joining showbiz — he dances and sings very well — but his boxing career will still be his main priority. On Sunday, he is doing a duet with Dingdong Dantes on S.O.P., which is giving him and Bryan Viloria a joint victory party.

Officially, Nonito Donaire Jr. is already a talent of the GMA Artists Center, which will handle his showbiz career, including his endorsements.

Although I’ve met Nonito only once (but I’ll surely be bumping into him more often now that he’s with GMA), I’ve grown fond of him (he is a very amiable person) and I’m very happy for his success. He has remained humble even in the face of victory and that is what I truly admire about him. To Nonito — or Jun-Jun as I now call him (feeling close?) — congratulations once again.    

And yes, good luck to your new career in showbiz. But brace yourself. The fights here are a lot fiercer than in the boxing ring. I don’t mean to scare you, but there will be hitting below the belt.