Robert Garcia wants ‘legend’ Nonito Donaire to retire

Nonito Donaire may be a boxing icon and future hall of famer but he should consider hanging up the gloves — according to his trainer Robert Garcia

Donaire (42-8, 28 KOs) recorded consecutive defeats, by the great Naoya Inoue, and then by Alexandro Santiago in July 2023. Yet the “Filipino Flash” aged 41 he plans to fight on, and has targeted a showdown against the similarly great Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez. His trainer, regardless, believes it may be time for him to quit. 

“Nonito Donaire is already a hall of famer,” Garcia told BoxingScene. “He’s a four-division world champion and he’s fought great fighters. He challenged himself against some of the great fighters in the world so he doesn’t need to prove anything else to himself.”

Donaire is one of the greatest fighters of the modern era – one who captured world titles in four weight divisions. Many thought his career was nearing its end in 2014 when Nicholas Walters took the WBA featherweight title away by stoppage him. Two years later Donaire lost a unanimous decision to Jessie Magdaleno, and to Carl Frampton in 2018. 

A return to bantamweight then reignited his career. He defied expectations to be competitive against the great Inoue in a unanimous decision defeat in 2019, and in June 2021 he captured the WBC 118lbs title with a fourth-round knockout of Nordine Oubaali. Another fourth-round knockout, of Reymart Gaballo in December 2021, set the stage for a rematch with Inoue in June 2022 in Inoue’s native Japan, when “The Monster” stopped him in two rounds. 

If there is no shame in losing to Inoue, the loss to Santiago came as a surprise. 

“He’s a legend and has accomplished a lot in his career so he doesn’t need to prove nobody anything,” Garcia said. “I would like to see him say that he’s retired but from what I understand, he might want to fight a few times more.

“I think he still has a little bit left but as a warrior – as a legend that he already is – he doesn’t need to prove nothing to anybody.

“He could retire and everybody would be happy. It’s up to him. He’s still healthy and talented enough to compete but me personally – I would like to see him retire. Yeah, I would love to see him just retire, enjoy life, enjoy his family, wife and kids.”

Bernard Neequaye is a sports journalist with a specialty in boxing coverage. He wrote a boxing column titled “From The Ringside” back in his native Ghana for years. He can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) at @BernardNeequaye, LinkedIn at Bernard Neequaye and through email at [email protected].