Aklan’s adopted son battles Mexican boxer
BY BOY RYAN B. ZABAL

KALIBO, Aklan – The adopted son of Aklan faces World Boxing Council (WBC) bantamweight king Fernando Montiel at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 19 (Sunday morning in Manila).
The championship fight between Montiel (43-2-2 with 33 KOs) and Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire, Jr. (25-1, 17 KOs) is scheduled for 12 rounds. The unified 118-pound bantamweight fight is promoted by Top Rank Promotions and will air live by HBO.
The lanky 5-foot-6 Donaire is one of the sport's top-10 pound-for-pound fighters. The 28-year-old Donaire stopped World Boxing Association champion Wladimir Sidorenko in the fourth-round last December 4 to arrange a match-up with Montiel.
The 31-year old Montiel from Mexico, who holds the WBC and World Boxing Organization bantamweight belts, last toppled Hozumi Hasegawa in April last year for a fourth-round technical knockout in Japan.
Two years ago, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) of Aklan passed Resolution No. 2009-103 adopting the boxing champion from Talibon, Bohol.

“Donaire has shown pride and belongingness to Aklanons by publicly declaring in local radio interviews about the family roots of his Filipino-American wife Rachel. It is but fitting for Aklan and her people to give due honor to the sports heroics of the Donaire couple being one of our own and must share the pride and honors that both brought to the Filipino people and prominently to Aklanons,” the resolution stated.

Donaire’s taekwondo jin wife, Rachel Marcial-Donaire, hails from Numancia, Aklan.