Glenn Donaire.
Glenn ?Boyet? Donaire may not be anywhere near as well-known or popular as his brother and Ring Magazine no.4 ranked pound for pound WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito "The Filipino Flash" Donaire, but the elder brother certainly is a fighter.
Glenn Donaire lived up to the pre-fight confidence he showed by winning the vacant Latino Super Flyweight title fight against former two-time world title challenger Omar Salado of Mexico on Saturday, Manila Time at the newly refurbished Auditorio Plaza Condesa in Mexico City.
Glenn who is ranked No. 11 by the WBC, won what was described as a hard-fought twelve round unanimous decision over Salido in an exciting two-way slugfest.
It was a give and take battle with both fighters having their moments. Donaire started off well to establish his rhythm and grab an early advantage.
Salido, aware that he was behind on points came back with a strong effort in the championship rounds but Donaire withstood the rally to win a solid unanimous decision that clearly establishes his own career.
All three judges scored the fight for Donaire by margins of 116-112, 118-111, 115-113.
The WBC earlier reported that Donaire has arrived ?confident and ready? along with his father/trainer Nonito Donaire Sr, manager Vinny Scolpino and promoter Tuto Zabala Jr in Mexico.
With the win Donaire improved his record 19-4-1 with 10 knockouts while Salado sdropped to 24-5-2 with 15 knockouts.
Zabala had stated that Donaire was ?in great shape and hungry? and disclosed that he had trained at high altitude with his father Nonito Donaire Sr. It clearly showed in the fight.
The promoter said he is confident that Donaire would win and earn a world title shot in the near future.
The 32 year old Donaire returned to the ring after more than four years following a twelve round unanimous decision shutout loss to Ulises Solis in an IBF light flyweight title fight on July 12, 2008 dropped Alex Sanchez twice in the second round and forced him to retire in the 8th round in a WBC Latino interim title fight on December 9, 2012.
He had previously fought Vic Darchinyan of Australia and lost by a 6th round technical decision in an IBF/IBO title fight on October 7, 2006 before his younger brother Nonito smashed Darchinyan into submission in a 5th round TKO on July 7, 2007 to win the world IBF/IBO flyweight title and the award for "Knockout of the Year."
Salado who is also 32 years old is coming off a 3rd round TKO victory over Ramon Pena last February 18.
He had previously lost in a WBA light flyweight clash to undefeated champion Roman Gonzalez on July 16, 2011 being dropped twice in round one and once in round seven.
Salado also suffered a 13th round TKO loss to Luis Concepcion in a WBA Interim title fight on September 5, 2009.
However, WBC president Don Jose Sulaiman told the Manila Standard that while he knows how good "Nonito" Donaire is he doesn't know too much about Glenn even as he said Salado "is a good fighter."
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