Nonito Donaire: Super fly wants to be Bruce Lee of boxing

Nonito Donaire has a world championship belt on his boxing resume, along with a 4-0 record in title fights.

He has superb technical skills, he’s physically imposing for his weight class and he packs knockout power in both fists.

Donaire also has charisma to spare, a trait that has helped him develop a rabid cult following among boxing fans, and one that will serve him well as he aims to establish himself as the most prominent fighter in the sport’s lighter weight divisions.

Listen as Donaire describes, with self-effacing humor, his first amateur fight at the age of 11.

“I had been training for about 45 days when my dad said I was ready to go into the ring,” Donaire said at the Top Rank gym in Las Vegas. “I was so scared I was peeing in my pants, literally. I had to go to the bathroom so bad. The feeling was like the first time you ever rode a roller coaster.

“But I knew I couldn’t jump out of the ring and let my dad be disappointed in me. I ended up winning the fight, and that’s when I found out I had it in me. I could hit and I wasn’t worried about getting hit. It all came natural to me.”

Donaire, a native of the Philippines who moved to California when he was 10, fights Rafael Concepcion on Saturday at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel.

After making three successful defenses of the flyweight world title he won by beating Vic Darchinyan in 2007, Donaire moves up to super flyweight (115 pounds) for the bout. He brings a streak of 20 consecutive victories, including five consecutive stoppages, into the fight against Concepcion.

If all goes well, Donaire could move on to challenge boxing’s best at 118 and 122 pounds as well as super flyweight, Top Rank’s Carl Moretti said.

“Nonito has a big, strong frame,” Moretti said. “When you look at him, you just think, ‘Wow.’ There are other names in those divisions, like (Jorge) Arce, like (Fernando) Montiel. That gives the kid so many options for a lot of attractive fights. Those are the kind of fights that can make those divisions more attractive overall.”

The outlook for his boxing career wasn’t always so bright.

“I used to hate fighting because everybody used to pick on me,” Donaire, 26, said. “Growing up in the Philippines was kind of hard for me. I didn’t have the confidence that other kids did. I was one of those kids who was scared of everybody. Then when I moved to the United States, everyone was bigger than me. I was always the kid who got picked last because I was tiny. I didn’t speak English well at the time, so that didn’t help.

“Once I got into boxing, it helped me a lot. As a little boy growing up it gave me a lot of confidence. Growing up in a boxing world is what gave me my drive and my discipline.”

A 2000 U.S. national amateur champion and Junior Olympics champion at 106 pounds, Donaire lost his second pro fight but then won 16 in a row to earn a title shot against Darchinyan. After buzzing him with a couple of hard left hooks in the third round, Donaire floored Darchinyan with a vicious left hook in the fifth to finish it and take his place among boxing’s elite.

The fight earned “knockout of the year” and “upset of the year” honors from The Ring.

Here’s a scary notion: Looking back at the fight today, Donaire says he was competing at perhaps 70 percent of full strength that night. After several years of taking fights at 115 or 118 pounds, sometimes on short notice, Donaire was returning to the 112-pound division to face Darchinyan and wasn’t sure he had dropped the weight in an optimal manner.

“I’m much closer to my potential now,” Donaire said. “One thing that stood out against Darchinyan was that I showed I had the heart to perform for a crowd, that I wasn’t going to let anyone or anything or any kind of pressure get to me or mess me up. He was the most feared fighter in the division at that time, and I took him out.”

In his most recent fight, in the Philippines, Donaire sent previously unbeaten Raul Martinez to the canvas four times on the way to a one-sided fourth-round technical knockout.

Donaire does not consider himself a pure knockout artist, though. He takes pride in his hand speed, his foot movement, his counterpunching.

“My style is constantly changing,” he said. “I’m the type of fighter who can mimic other fighters I admire. I can fight like Roy Jones, like Floyd Mayweather, like Oscar De La Hoya, like Manny Pacquiao. I’m comfortable fighting in a variety of styles.

“It’s kind of like Bruce Lee, in his time, when he wanted to learn all he could from all different sources so he could fight to the best of his ability. I want to learn to fight in every style that’s out there.”

Although he said he’s in good enough condition to go “20 rounds” Saturday, Donaire will look to end the fight early if an opportunity arises. He considers a knockout the most satisfying form of victory.

“My main goal and my dream is to be a multi-division champion,” Donaire said. “I want to find out how many weight classes I can conquer.”