by Ronnie Nathanielsz

Five division world champion Nonito “The Filipino Flash” has picked Cuban Ismael Salas as “main trainer” for his fight against unbeaten Jessie Magdaleno at the Thomas & Mack Center on November 5.

Donaire informed The Standard that Salas will work with him in Las Vegas and told us that his new trainer who replaces his father/trainer “Dodong” Donaire who didn’t want to work in Las Vegas and wished to spend time with his family in San Francisco and concentrate on managing his gym will help out in “the physical part in the next eight to 9 weeks of training” since he is “mentally ready and have done what I need to do psychologically and mentally and will be ready to fight in a month or so.”.

Salas has trained such world champions as Guillermo Rigondeaux (who beat Donaire some years ago), Yuriorkis Gamboa, Danny Green, Jessie Vargas (Pacquiao’s opponent) and Jorge Linares.

Donaire who just returned to Las Vegas from a leadership seminar in San Diego conducted by Tony Robbins said “it was excellent and he had learned a lot in the seminar which taught people how to change their lives.”

Donaire told us he is “feeling great” and “excited to be on a Manny Pacquiao card in Las Vegas” which is something he’s always wanted and indicated he would be “ready to fight in a month or so.”

He said that since Magdaleno has had a history of problems making the 122 pound limit in his more recent fights “We made sure that he will be punished or penalized gravely if he doesn’t make weight.”

Nonito added “I did the same thing for me as well. I believe that integrity is key and I want to do a fair contract.”

We also spoke to Top Rank promoter Bob Arum who informed us that he’s been working with Magdaleno’s manager Frank Espinoza on the terms of the contract but that since Espinoza’s mother is very will Arum is hoping it will be finalized by next week.

Arum indicated that Magdaleno has a nutritionist “working with him full-time so he’d make the weight.”

Arum said putting Donaire on the same card as the Pacquiao-Jessie Vargas WBO welterweight title fight “really helps” and that he was “very surprised how many orders he has received already for tickets from Filipinos who wanted to see Donaire and Pacquiao on the same card. That’s good.”

He said he had seen footage of Pacquiao training and that “he looked terrific. He is surely amazing at his age” and maintained that Manny was “doing a good job in the Senate. I saw him in action and he’s very serious.”

Arum said “everything is fine and we are getting ready for next week’s big press conference in Los Angeles” even as he emphasized that Pacquiao “..can’t go to New York because he is so diligent (about his Senate duties) that he’s going back to Manila on Saturday.

He also revealed that Top Rank is working on then television coverage which should be “no problem.” He mentioned “what we’ll do is ABS-CBN (which has the rights to Donaire’ fights) will do the Zou Shiming title fight, followed by Donaire vs Magdaleno, then the Valdez featherweight title fight that leads to Manny’s fight against Jessie Vargas, the WBO welterweight champion.