Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire will be fighting in the 126 pound or featherweight division for the first time in his quest for redemption this Sunday morning (Nov. 10, Philippine Time) in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Donaire weighed in at 125.25lbs while his opponent Vic ‘The Raging Bull” Darchinyan was at 125.75lbs during the official weigh-in for their ten round non-title showdown.
This will be a rematch of their 2007 battle that saw Donaire knock out Darchinyan in five rounds for the IBF flyweight title. The 30 year old Donaire (31W-2K, 20 KOs) is aiming to bounce back from his unanimous decision loss last April to Cuban Guillermo Rigondeaux in their WBO/WBA unification match for the 122 lb division titles.
The 37-year-old Darchinyan (39W-5L-1D, 28 KOs) will try to erase that shameful loss and revive his flagging career. Last year, he lost to Shinsuke Yamanaka of Japan in his bid to win the WBC bantamweight title. Darchinyan has since won his last two fights against Luis Orlando del Valle by unanimous verdict and Javier Gallo by 4th round TKO.
They will be part of an HBO tripleheader at the American Bank Center that will also see Mikey Garcia challenge WBO superfeatherweight champion Roman Martinez and Vanes Martirosyan face Demetrius Andrade for the vacant WBO junior middleweight crown.
Martinez weighed 129.75lbs while Garcia was at 128.75. Martirosyan and Andrade both tipped the scales at 153.75lbs.
ABS-CBN will telecast the fight at 11 a.m. right after the Miss Universe beauty pageant coverage on Channel 2 with a replay of the Donaire-Darchinyan fight and all three other world title fights on Studio 23 at 8 p.m.