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Nonito Donaire will face Toshiaki Nishioka on October 13 in an HBO main event from the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, a fight card that has diehard fans around the world buzzing a month out. In the co-feature, Brandon Rios will face Mike Alvarado.
Donaire sat down with CSN Bay Area's Ryan Maquinana to discuss the upcoming fight.
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Ryan Maquinana, CSN Bay Area: "Give us an idea how camp has gone so far."
Nonito Donaire: "It's been great, man. We've been working out with everybody here. ... So far, so good. We're just trying to get more sparring in, and trying to get that 10, 12 rounds so that we'll be ready. But aside from that, everything's looking good so far."
Maquinana: "Nishioka is a tough matchup, because not only is he a southpaw, but he comes at you with tricky angles and has some power, as evidenced by the way he knocked out Jhonny Gonzalez. You've got a massive left hook -- how do you set that up against a southpaw, or is it going to take other weapons, like your right?"
Donaire: "It's definitely gonna take more than just a left hook to take this guy out. Looking at Andre (Ward's) fight (with Chad Dawson), we can do something like that. Setting up, and taking away his weapon. Going back to the real me. The way I fight. That was an inspirational thing for me, to look back and be myself. It definitely needs to be done in different ways. Different angles, different punches, just setting up the whole thing with Nishioka."
Maquinana: "You made history a couple months ago by submitting to 365, 24/7, Olympic-style drug testing. You're the first boxer to ever do that. Tell me how that has gone so far, as far as the testing, and haev you offered that to your opponent, Toshiaki Nishioka?"
Donaire: "I have offered it to Nishioka, and they said they'll get back to me. I'll have VADA contact them, and stuff like that, but I did offer it to them. So far with it, it's just a normal day. When they come in, it's random, and you don't know, and you don't expect them to be there. But in a daily life, I pretty much do the same thing that I always have. It feels like I'm not even in it. So they show up at my door, and step in, and say, 'Hey, we're taking your blood and your urine sample.' So, you're like, 'Oh, I forgot. You guys are here.'"
Maquinana: "You are going after the generally considered No. 1, 122-pounder in the world in Nishioka. you've already won the IBF and the WBO belt, and yet there are still people, critics, who say, 'Why aren't you fighting the other champions?' Like Guillermo Rigondeaux or maybe Abner Mares, whose manager Frank Espinoza told me he'd love that fight. What's your take as far as what the critics are saying?"
Donaire: "Critics will always be critics. That's why they're called critics. With me, everybody has their opinion. I have my own opinion. I think the guy that I've been looking for in this division was Nishioka from the beginning. Unless Rigondeaux or Mares prove themselves worthy of it. If that's the case, I'm always willing to fight them. They just gotta make it happen. With me, they've known me for a long time. People have known me for a long time. The fight is there. The contract is there. I don't make excuses. If they want to make it happen, let's make it happen. But aside from that, the goal for this division is who I'm fighting October 13."