FIVE-DIVISION world champion Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire had no problems going 12 rounds with sparmate Jose Gonzalez, a cousin of unbeaten pound-for-pound king Roman“Chocolatito” Gonzalez, thanks to precision boxing being preached by his new trainer.
“Gonzales has a good style similar to unbeaten Jessie Magdaleno,” said Donaire, referring to the challenger against whom the reigning WBO super bantamweight champion will defend his title at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas on Nov. 6.
“I had no problem at all and it was the first time I was in terrific control,” Donaire told the Manila Standard.
Donaire revealed that Cuban trainer Ismael Salas has shown him “a better way to fight and when you see me (against Magdaleno), you’ll’ be surprised. He helps me fight in a more precise fashion.”
Salas has trained world champions Guillermo Rigondeaux, who beat Donaire some years ago in New York; Yuriorkis Gamboa; Danny Green; Jorge Linares, and Manny Pacquiao’s opponent in the main event of the same fight card.
Gonzalez is an unbeaten super bantamweight with a record of 5-0-1 with 2 knockouts and is 20 years old.
Meanwhile, rugged Ricky Sismundo scored an impressive 10-round unanimous decision over Ghislain Maduma, a former sparring partner of eight-division world champion Pacquiao, dropping him with a wicked right in Round 9 at the Bell Center in Montreal, Canada on Sunday.
Sismundo went after Maduma with a flurry of punches, but failed to put him away.
All three judges scored the fight for Sismundo, who fights out of Yokohama, Japan.
Richard Blouin scored it by a comfortable 97-91 margin for the Filipino, while Benoit Rousel and Nicholas Esnault had Sismundo the winner by identical 95-93 margins over the fighter from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who now fights out of Canada.
With the upset victory, the 29-year-old Sismundo improved to 31-9-3 with 13 knockouts, while the 31-year-old Maduma dropped to 18-3 with 11 knockouts.
Sismundo was coming off a split draw against another Pacquiao sparring partner Dierry Jean last May 13 and previously suffered a 10-round split decision to highly touted lightweight Jose Felix Jr on Jan. 31, all because he had a point taken away in a clash at the Marriott Convention Center in Burbank, California last Jan. 30.
Felix is ranked No. 3 by the WBO and No. 5 by the IBF.