According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, World Bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire will make his New York debut when he takes on Omar Naravez on October 22nd at The Theater in Madison Square Garden.
“We’re finalizing stuff with the Garden now,” said Top rank President Todd duBoef. “It’s where stars are born. If you can play New York, you can play anywhere. It doesn’t matter what sphere of entertainment you are in — music, theater, athletics — to play that city is a big steppingstone for anybody.”
“Stylistically, it’s a good match and his record speaks for itself,” duBoef said. “Narvaez made an incredible amount of defenses (at flyweight). He is a pressure fighter who will come to Nonito, and you couldn’t ask for anything else. He will put pressure on him and be there all night. We felt that from a television and fan point of view this could be a very crowd-pleasing fight.”
“Narvaez is, by far, the most popular fighter in Argentina and I believe one of the most popular fighters in South America,” Top Rank’s Carl Moretti said. “He’s small, but Donaire is going to be bigger than any bantamweight because you are basically looking at a featherweight fighting at bantamweight. Donaire is going to grow into the featherweight division, so the size factor will be there no matter who he fights. He has freakish size, like Thomas Hearns when he was at welterweight. So you have to come up with the toughest style and toughest guy to challenge him.
“Look, Narvaez is an undefeated southpaw, clearly experienced and a champion in his own right. He brings tremendous credentials to the ring.”
“The fact that Donaire, a top three pound-for-pound fighter in the world, gets to display his talents to the East Coast fans and media at the mecca of boxing is a plus for everybody,” Moretti said. “We are aware of a large Filipino contingent in the tri-state area, which we will directly market to as well as making sure we have a lot of local flavor on the undercard. We love these types of opportunities and challenges in promoting. It’s so much better than going to a stale casino atmosphere, and better for the sport overall.”
