Manny Pacquiao Is the Precursor for Nonito Donaire, the Next Boxing Superstar

On November 15, 2003, a little-known fighter announced his name to the world.

In 11 rounds of heart-stopping action, Manny "Pac-Man" Pacquiao dismantled and stopped the great Marco Antonio Barrera.

In doing so, he dispatched a top 10 pound-for-pound fighter, the recognised No. 1 at Featherweight, and clinched a title in a third weight division. Although it was not a world title, he captured the universally recognised Ring and Lineal championships.

On Saturday, another Filipino fighter, Nonito Donaire, faces a defining moment in his career when he attempts to wrest away the WBC and WBO world titles from the clutches of the fierce Mexican, Fernando Montiel.

Montiel, like Barrera circa 2003, is recognised as numero uno at his respective weight and universally regarded as being in the mythical top 10 pound-for-pound lists.

The comparisons do not end there.

Like Pacquiao, this represents Nonito’s third weight class scaled, having already won world titles at both Flyweight and Super Flyweight, if you count his interim title.

Manny was not heralded much prior to his destruction of Barrera. Aside from diehard boxing fans, he was a non-entity. In the aftermath of his virtuoso performance, however, the whole of the boxing world sat up and took notice. There were even whispers of acknowledgment from mainstream America.

Donaire may not gain appreciation from a crossover audience—even in the wake of an emphatic victory—but the whole of the boxing fraternity will be watching with intrigue this Saturday.

The boxing-mad Filipino boxing community has not wholly taken him to its heart yet. Unfortunately, its affection is overwhelmingly invested in its chosen son, Manny Pacquiao, a man that is revered in his homeland as being the purest thing since the Virgin birth of Jesus.

Although Donaire was brought up in the same impoverished area and went to the same school as Pacquiao, his rags-to-riches story doesn’t resonate so profoundly for Filipinos. This probably being due to his emigration to the United States at 11 years old and English being his first language.

Stylistically, there are notable differences between the two. Donaire is much less visceral and more cerebral, which caters to the boxing aficionado, but not always to the casual fan.

Boxers and fans do not always agree that the most effective way is also the most attractive way.

Donaire has, in appreciation of this fact, expressed a desire to be more exciting in the ring, perhaps an acknowledgment of Manny’s rhetoric, "I always try to give a good fight for the fans."

One must assume so.

For all Donaire may do to eschew comparisons with Pacquiao, the great Filipino boxing legend is a contemporary precedent for establishing popularity and notoriety, and one that any prospective precocious talent would be wise to adopt.

Through a combination of record accomplishments, indelible boxing moments, exciting fights and an effortless charm and humility outside of the ring, Manny has risen to become one of the foremost athletes in the world today.

It’s slightly presumptuous to think that anyone could reach such stratospheric heights again, but someone must inherit the mantle when the Pac-Man rides his white horse out of the square circle and into the Bermuda Triangle that is politics.

Such is the transient nature of sport that once Manny does leave, almost immediately fans and writers will look to fill the newly-created hinterland with another superstar.

An exacting reckoning awaits Nonito Donaire on Saturday night.

If the task ahead is negotiated with the same insouciance, the execution delivered with the enthralling and destructive tenor, of Manny Pacquiao’s defeat of Marco Antonio Barrera seven years ago, his name will be elevated to the top of the list of potential successors.