Sports

No ‘Flash’ in pan

Nonito Donaire was posing with the Radio City Rockettes the other day when he noticed how precisely the dancers stood when being photographed. “They’re pretty straight,” he told a confidant, referring to their posture.

It’s not surprising Donaire would appreciate those who strive to perfect their craft. It’s what he has been doing in his own sport. Saturday night Donaire, also known as the Filipino Flash, will test his boxing skills against Guillermo Rigondeaux of Cuba at Radio City Music Hall in a fight Donaire views as a test of his own development as much as his ability to remain undefeated.

“When you do this for a while like I have, you tend to be motivated by having a good fighter in front of you,” Donaire said. “The more that I watched him fight the more excited I got about the fight. He has a lot of talent.”

Donaire will be defending his WBO junior featherweight title in taking on Rigondeaux, an undefeated WBA super bantamweight champion and former two-time Olympic gold medalist in a unification bout at 122 pounds. HBO will televise the bout at 11 p.m. Eastern.

Donaire (31-1, 20 KOs) was presented with his 2012 Fighter of the Year award at the boxing writers dinner this week in Manhattan. He hopes to get 2013 off to a good start by beating Rigondeaux, who is only 11-0 with eight KOs as a pro, but had 400 amateur fights as part of the heralded Cuban boxing team. Rigondeaux, who is 32 years old, didn’t turn pro until age 28 after defecting from Cuba and settling in Miami.

“He has been the best ever at the amateur level trying to become one of the best at the professional level,” said Donaire, who lives in California. “It is going to be something. People are going to be in for a treat.”

Rigondeaux sees the fight as a chance to validate himself as a professional.

“I believe that I belong at this level,” he said. “If I am going to be the best, I believe you’ve got to beat the best. Right now Nonito is the best. A victory over Nonito would show the world that I can compete against the best in the world in a professional capacity.”

It will be the second boxing match in the 82-year history of Radio City Music Hall. The first was in January 2000 when Roy Jones won every round of his fight with David Telesco after Whitney Houston sang the national anthem. Jones recalled wanting to make that night historic while speaking on the weekly national radio show “Mouthpiece Boxing” on Yahoo!Sports Radio.

“I wanted to make it more than a boxing match because of the venue and its history,” Jones told host Ron Borges. “I wanted to make it a show. Whitney Houston accomplished that. So did Roy Jones.’’

Jones was led into the ring that night by the Rockettes.

Like Jones, Donaire relies on his speed and power to overwhelm his opponents. He’s confident it will be enough to beat Rigondeaux.

“If it comes down to speed and power, then my experience will be an ace for me,” Donaire said. “But that’s something we will need to find out.”

PREDICTION: Donaire by decision.

* Tickets remain available at the usual ticket outlets for the April 20 afternoon boxing card at the Garden Theater featuring heavyweights Tyson Fury (20-0, 14 KOs) of Wilmslow, Cheshire in the United Kingdom and Steve Cunningham (25-5, 12 KOs) of Philadelphia. Fury is making his American debut.

The undercard is headlined by middleweight Curtis “Showtime” Stevens (23-3, 17 KOs) in an eight-rounder against Derrick “Superman” Findley (20-3, 13 KOs). The doors open at 1:15 p.m.