After the fight: The lasting and growing legacy of Nonito Donaire

Nonito Donaire has secured a vaulted place in boxing history, but his KO win over Nordine Oubaali adds depth to his legacy.

On May 29, Nonito Donaire scored a sensational round 4 knockout over Nordine Ouballi to win his ninth career world title. The victory is impressive enough, but it’s hard to put into words the greatness of Donaire’s legacy, but I’m going to give it a try.

Donaire’s career accomplishments will make him a future first-ballot Hall-of-Famer. Like many other boxers that have gone on to have mythical careers, Donaire’s rise in boxing was unlikely.

Donaire (41-6, 27 KOs) came from a boxing family. His father was an amateur boxer, and several other family members, including his brother, boxed, but Donaire was a bit different as a child. According to the Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) website, Donaire was small and often sick in his early adolescence. He picked up the sweet science because of a sort of familial peer pressure.

“My father never thought of me fighting,” Donaire once told PBC. “I started fighting because that was something that my family was really into. My first fight, my father trained me for 45 days. At 11 years old, I was getting bullied, always being made fun of. Walking into the ring, I literally pissed in my pants, I was so scared.”

Once he got going, it wasn’t hard to see that Donaire had a special talent. He compiled a 68-8 amateur record, which included numerous national championship victories. Despite losing his second professional contest, Donaire won his first world title in 2007 by stopping Vic Darchinyan in round 5 for the IBF and IBO flyweight titles. Donaire was 25 years old at the time.

Donaire went unbeaten over the next six years, winning titles as a super flyweight, bantamweight, and super bantamweight. He collected wins against Jorge Arce and  Moruti Mthalane. His career didn’t continue unscathed. Donaire faced adversity and lost to several elite boxers along the way, but he never lost faith in his abilities.

Nonito Donaire is a champion again in his 20th year as a professional boxer

After each defeat, Donaire managed to compose himself and return to winning form. After losing to Carl Frampton in 2018, Donaire decided to drop down to bantamweight from featherweight. Most boxers move up due to slowed metabolism as they age, but Donaire seemed to sense that he could be more competitive at the lower weight where his size and power would do more damage. It was the right move.

Even though Donaire lost to Naoya Inoue in 2019, he hurt the younger undefeated champion and gave him a run for his money in a fight deemed the Fight of the Year by ESPN.

Donaire proved that his performance against Inoue was no fluke when he knocked Oubaali down three times to become the WBC bantamweight champion. By conventional standards, Donaire is still a youthful 38 years old. In the boxing world, he’s in the final stages of his boxing career, but he still finds ways to fight like a younger man.

“The wisdom is definitely a big part of me fighting now, but the biggest part is being healthy,” Donaire told FanSided leading up to the Oubaali fight. “I could be 40 and still be fighting with anybody else at a young age. It’s just my healthy lifestyle. There’s no other thing about it. It’s just I’m very healthy. I eat the right food. I get the right rest. I’m mentally, physically, and spiritually healthy. That’s the biggest thing to me.”

Donaire became a champion for the ninth time and substantiated his claims with his fists. In 2014, he looked like a shot fighter against Nicholas Walters, but Donaire is an example that boxers aren’t two-dimensional. A fighters’ life is complicated and can be hampered by injuries, personal lives, and psyches.

At the moment, Donaire is firing on all cylinders, and every aspect of his life appears to be in order. He’s happy and healthy and boxing better than ever 20 years into his professional boxing career. Donaire could be an elite boxer at 40 or older. He has proven that his heart and intelligence are weapons along with his left hand. Donaire has natural talent, but he’s leaning on a spirit and boxing savvy possessed by a select few. Expect him to be a boxing factor for years to come.