Donaire clears issue on Viloria-Garcia break up

Nonito Donaire Jr. finally cleared the air and denied being the cause of the break up between long-time partners Brian Viloria and trainer Robert Garcia. The "Filipino Flash" had to explain his side on the issue after insinuations arose that he was the culprit for the parting of ways involving one of boxing’s solid alliances. "In terms ng pinag-uusapan nila (of what they talked about), I have nothing to do with that. Sa kanila lang 'yun (It's between the two of them)," the 27-year old former International Boxing Federation (IBF) flyweight champion said when asked by GMANews.TV about the controversy. Garcia was tapped by Donaire early this year to help Jonathan Peñalosa in his corner. A former IBF super-featherweight champion, Garcia has been Viloria's trainer since 2007 and was responsible for the Filipino’s ring resurgence that saw him captured the IBF junior-flyweight title last year with a 12th round knockout of durable Mexican Ulises Solis at the Araneta Coliseum. But conflict arose when both Viloria and Donaire were scheduled to fight on the same date last July 10 on two different venues miles apart from each other. Although Garcia initially prepared Viloria for his comeback fight against Mexican Omar Sotto slated at the Ynares Sports Center in Pasig City, the trainer later insisted Viloria was not ready yet for his ring return and sought a postponement for the 10-round bout. Viloria however, insisted his was just a simple case of slight cough and cold and that he was physically and mentally ready to climb the ring again. Besides, with only three weeks to go, the fight can no longer be postponed by Solar Sports, which promoted the boxing card as the fourth installment of its Boxing At The Bay series. One thing led to the other until both parties decided to just severe their ties. With no Viloria to train, Garcia decided to instead focus his time on Donaire, who was then set to fight Hernan "Tyson" Marquez of Mexico as part of the undercard in the Juan Manuel Lopez-Bernabe Concepcion World Boxing Organization (WBO featherweight title bout. While Donaire was impressive in his 8th round technical knockout of Marquez in Puerto Rico, Viloria had to struggle in beating Soto in a 12th round split decision. Donaire admitted being among those who felt sorry for the Viloria-Garcia split up, but said that he should not be blamed for it. "I have nothing to do with that. I don't even talk to Robert when I don't have a fight," he said. The World Boxing Association (WBA) interim super-flyweight champion said the only time he spoke to Garcia about it came when they were already in the homestretch of his training for the Marquez fight. "I just told him na kung saan siya mas (where are you most) comfortable, that would be fine to me. Robert is actually more of a strategist on my part because Jonathan Peñalosa is always present during training and the fight itself," Donaire added. But he did describe Garcia as "one of the nicest guys I've ever met in boxing." Donaire is staying in the country for one month to do tape several episodes of Kapuso TV shows, including Show Me Da Manny, Pepito Manolotto, Hole In The Wall and Dance Showdown. He and wife Rachel then returns to the U.S. and begin training for his next fight, possibly a shot at Fernando Montiel's World Boxing Council (WBC) bantamweight crown in November. – JVP, GMANews.TV