Nonito “Filipino Flash” Donaire has relished his latest Northern California homecoming.

After spending his last training camp in Las Vegas, the San Leandro native returned to his familiar confines of the Undisputed Gym in San Carlos last month to prepare for his July 7 junior featherweight unification tilt against IBF champ Jeffrey Mathebula (26-3-2, 14 KOs) at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.

In an interview with this writer for Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, the WBO 122-pound champion talked about the move back west.

“The Bay Area is always going to be my home no matter what. Over here, I have my people and my team who I trust in the ring,” Donaire (28-1, 18 KOs) told CSNBayArea.com. “It’s great to be back. It’s great to be here. This is home, and one thing about the desire and determination to work hard is here.”

That home team includes trainer Brian Schwartz, strength and conditioning coach Mike Bazzel, nutritionist Victor Conte, track coach Remi Korchemny, and chiropractor Cameron Fort. All of them except Korchmeny were in attendance Saturday for Donaire’s public workout at Undisputed.

Although Donaire briefly worked the mitts while attached to a high-altitude hypoxic simulator (which prompted Conte to proclaim “the return of the hypoxic Monster Man”), the workout was more of a class where the fighter played the teacher, instructing willing fans both young and old on punching form, hitting the heavy bag, and other basics of the sweet science.

“It’s inspiration, just seeing the kids who are working out, [and] the people working out. You just have to appreciate every moment,” Donaire said.

Among those in attendance were wife Rachel and local unbeaten up-and-comers like Karim Mayfield and Bruno Escalante, in addition to another familiar face—San Francisco 49er star running back Frank Gore, who joked that he had sparred with Donaire recently.

“I couldn’t touch him,” the three-time Pro Bowler said. “He had a 20-pound vest on and I couldn’t hit him.”

Donaire’s head trainer, Robert Garcia, traveled up Highway 101 from Oxnard to track his fighter’s progress.

“He’s about 12 pounds over but he looks solid, looks strong, and we’re just doing some light sparring now, about six rounds,” Garcia said.

The celebrated cornerman agreed with his fighter that moving his camp back to the Bay Area was the right choice.

“I’m not saying it affected him, but there’s a lot of distractions,” Garcia said. “He was basically training by himself when I wasn’t there, so it makes a big difference. When I’m not here, I know he has Bazzel, he has Brian, and everybody here that are pushing him, so this is the best place for him to do camps.”

Following the workout, Donaire spoke about his goals at 122 pounds, as well as where he stood in talks with former titlist Toshiaki Nishoka (39-4-3, 24 KOs) of Japan and the other two junior featherweight beltholders, the WBA boss Guillermo Rigondeaux (9-0, 7 KOs) of Cuba and WBC king Abner Mares (24-0-1, 13 KOs) of Hawaiian Gardens, Calif.

“I really want to be undisputed, and that could be [fighting] either Mares or Rigondeaux,” Donaire said. “We’ve negotiated with Nishioka before, and they wanted six months off, so that’s why they’re out of the lineup. Now he’s said he’s going to come to the fight and challenge me, and that’s what the Japanese guys are informing me…and that is fine with me.

“We tried to negotiate with Mares and Rigondeaux, but I think the negotiation process was a failure. We have Mathebula and [Cristian] Mijares that they’ve given me, and I picked Mathebula over Mijares…and definitely Rigondeaux and Mares is on the line for me.”

Donaire, who has already won belts at 112, 115, and 118 pounds in addition to his current 122-pound title, elaborated on furthering his growing legacy.

“I want to fight those guys and be in the undisputed realm, and be the first Asian actually to be undisputed,” Donaire said. “You always see me calling out the champions for unification, because that’s what I want to do. It’s my goal. It’s my dream, and I’m not going to stop until I get that.”

In February, the pot of gold at 126 pounds was Cuban Yuriorkis Gamboa (21-0, 16 KOs). But with Gamboa moving up in weight and mired in promotional turmoil, Mexico’s Orlando Salido (38-11-2, 26 KOs) has taken the reigns as featherweight target for the “Filipino Flash”—especially if the aforementioned unification bouts cannot be made.

“I’m not going to wait,” Donaire said. “We have Salido, we have all these other guys at 126 that we’re willing to face. I think that’s going to be an incredible fight, and I think that Salido is one of the guys that’s going to push myself to the limit.”

Donaire was then asked how he saw a hypothetical fight would transpire between them.

“You never know what the outcome of the fight [may be],” Donaire said. “I’ve seen Salido go down a few times, and I think I can make that happen, but he always gets up, and he’s always breaks people down. But I’m really one of those guys that have a heart that’s hard to break.”

Of course, the task at hand is the South African Mathebula, whose 5’10’’ height has already presented Team Donaire with a new puzzle to solve for the July 7 HBO Boxing After Dark telecast.

“[Manager] Cameron Dunkin just sent us a couple days ago, the tape of his fight with [Takalani] Ndlovu, the former IBF [champ],” Donaire said. “He’s very, very tall…He uses his range. He uses his jab. He uses his movement to take advantage of his height. We’re working on a gameplan to tackle that right now.”


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