WBC and WBO bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire will be moving up in weight on February 4th when he faces off with former titlist Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. for the vacant WBO junior featherweight belt at the Alamodome in San An­tonio, Texas. Donaire officially kicked off his camp yesterday at the Top Rank Gym in Las Vegas, Nevada and a few things stood out about his first day. A move to Las Vegas Donaire has spent several of his recent camps in the city of San Carlos, California, at the Un­disputed Boxing Gym but decid­ed to keep this particular camp closer to home, as he owns a Condo with his wife Rachel, right off the strip.

The move makes far more sense financially for Donaire, who had spent quite a bit in lodging in past camps in the Bay Area for his sparring partners and train­ers. But despite looking to stage his upcoming camps in Vegas, Donaire still had great admira­tion for his crew at Undisputed and noted that his corner, which includes strength and condition­ing coach Mike Bazzel, will always remain the same.

Sparring partners
Donaire’s two chief sparring partners for this camp are a pair of younger, heavier pugs in 25- year old unbeaten, Russian-born featherweight prospect Evgeny Gradovich and 22-year old Ja­vier ‘Pelos’ Garcia, a lightweight prospect from Oxnard, California who happens to be the nephew of Donaire’s trainer Robert Garcia.

Javier went up to the Bay Area for Donaire’s camp with Fernan­do Montiel earlier this year and witnessed some of the intense sparring at the gym. He instantly felt a need to test his skills against Donaire’s and now he has his wish.

“I was worried that I would be a little too heavy for him but now I guess I got what I wanted,” said Garcia.

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