Donaire: Beating Frampton will get me into bigger fights

As Nonito Donaire (38-4, 24 KOs) prepares to begin training camp for an April 21 fight with Carl Frampton in enemy territory, Donaire knows what’s at stake. Once rated as a pound-for-pound fighter, Donaire has had a rather swift fall from grace which all began with a lopsided loss to Guillermo Rigondeaux in 2013.

Now, with Donaire looking to get back into title contention with a marquee win, it may be do-or-die for the Filipino fighter, telling RingTV:

“I believe that this is the fight that will open the gates to bigger fights,” said the four-division titleholder Donaire (38-4, 24 knockouts), who adds that the paperwork is still being processed to finalize the bout. “This is a must win fight for me, this is a fight that will get me up there.

“I see his style, my style, somewhat similar, we both have power, we both can brawl, we can box, we can do all that stuff. I think this is going to be a very interesting fight and I’m very excited for it.”

Donaire is most recently coming off a decision win over Ruben Garcia Hernandez this past September — an ‘experimental’ fight where he was trying to fine tune his style for when he’d have to face another top opponent. Now that Donaire has that opponent, he says he’s been working on delivering more power while using his lateral movement.

The 35-year-old Donaire asserts that he still has years left in the boxing game, and that in this outing we will all see the potential in him that we used to years ago.

Only time will tell, I guess...