Donaire stakes titles in NYC


Nonito Donaire Jr. and Guillermo Rigondeaux will face each other at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City in the unification bout for the junior-featherweight belt on April 13.

Top Rank Head Bob Arum, in an interview by ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael, said on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila) that they have chosen Radio City because Madison Square Garden’s (MSG) Theater is booked.

“MSG [Executive Vice President] Joel Fisher said maybe he could get Radio City, because the Garden owns it. We said that was a great idea. It’s expensive to do a fight there, but it’s worth it,” Arum said.

Arum will officially announce the fight, the main event of HBO’s World Championship Boxing, in a news conference on Thursday in New York City. This will be the second boxing event in Radio City’s 82-year history since January 15, 2000, a light-heavyweight bout between Roy Jones Jr. and David Telesco.

“I’ve heard so much about the place and how Roy fought there and Roy is one of the guys I look up to, so I am very excited about fighting there,” said Donaire (31-1 with 20 knockouts), who will be making his fourth defense of his World Boxing Organization and The Ring titles.

Rigondeaux, another athlete who defected from Cuba, holds the World Boxing Association version of the 122-lb belt and is still undefeated after 11 professional fights with eight by way of knockout.

He is also a two-time Olympic gold medalist (2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens) aside from ruling the bantamweight division in the World Amateur Boxing Championships (2001 Belfast, Ireland and Mianyang, China); Pan American Games in San Juan, Puerto Rico, (2003); Central American and Caribbean Games in Cartagena, Colombia, (2006) and World Cup of Boxing (2002 in Astana, Kazakhstan, and 2005 in Moscow, Russia).

“I think it’s going to be a terrific fight. It’s one I have wanted to see. These guys have been spouting off about each other for a long time and now it will be decided in the ring.”

Donaire had a dominant 2012 campaign against four world-class opponents, two of which retired after losing to the “Filipino Flash,” to earn the Fighter of the Year award in various boxing groups and organizations.

This will be Donaire’s second time-fighting in New York City since his unanimous decision win over Argentina’s Omar Andres Narvaez on October 22, 2011.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bishop Hagemoen challenges pilgrims to be Prophets of the New Millennium

Image
SASKATOON — As Catholic youth gear up for the 2023 World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal, Bishop Mark Hagemoen urged those who participated in the Mount Carmel Pilgrimage Site to embrace their role as prophets of the new millennium. On the Day of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel feast, hundreds of pilgrims gathered at the Mount Carmel Pilgrimage site on Sunday, July 16, to participate in the annual liturgical services, and the day commenced with the recitation of the rosary and Marian hymns, culminating in a concelebrated mass led by Bishop Hagemoen. Bishop Mark Hagemoen During his homily, Bishop Hagemoen echoed the words of Pope Francis, calling on the pilgrims to embrace their prophetic calling and spread God's word to all. He emphasized that each individual, through baptism, has received the gift of Messianic prophecy, becoming a prophet themselves. "The pope says, ‘Each of us, brothers and sisters, is a prophet. In fact, with baptism, let us all receive the gift of the Messian
Read more

Papal visit hopes to repair relationship with Indigenous Peoples

Image
SASKATOON — The Vatican has released the official itinerary of Pope Francis with the pontiff heading straight to Edmonton to make his first visit to Canada to meet with Indigenous Peoples, especially residential school survivors. The Holy Father will leave Rome on July 24, Thursday, at 9:00 a.m. local time and will arrive at the Edmonton International Airport for the official welcome at 11:20 a.m. the same day. Rome is eight hours ahead of Alberta, which follows mountain daylight time. The theme of the papal visit is “Walking Together” which will focus on reconciliation and healing the strained relationship between the Catholic church and Indigenous Peoples, especially the survivors of the abuses caused by attending the Canadian residential school system. Pope Francis’ six-day trip is a combination of public and private events and meetings, especially with Indigenous Peoples. The visit comes after a few months when a historic meeting between First Nations, Inuit and Métis delegates in
Read more

A letter to Tatay

SASKATOON—My father died in February 2018, more than a month after our last vacation in the Philippines where we get to spend Christmas and New Year with our family and friends. I have no idea that would be the last time we would see Tatay alive, the last time he would see my family and spend time with two (Macky and Nathan) of his more than 10 grandchildren, and the last time I would speak to him in person and my last time to mano before heading to the airport the early morning of Jan. 9, 2018. He died while we were back on Saipan, thousands of kilometres away east of the Philippines; while I was busy covering House and Senate sessions at the CNMI Legislature or busy hounding the governor about a local or federal issue, and while I was working on an island surrounded by the ocean in the Western Pacific. I haven't mentioned this to anyone—and I'm not sure if Nanay or my sister who was then taking care of him remembers this—but I got furious at him when we talked on the ph
Read more