Nonito Donaire Sr calls for his son's retirement following TKO loss to Inoue

Nonito Donaire Sr. would like to see his son Nonito Donaire Jr. call it a day in professional boxing following his second-round technical knockout defeat at the hands of Naoya Inoue this past Tuesday at the Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

“For me, he has nothing more to prove. He needs to take a rest,” Donaire Sr. said.

“If he wants to stay in boxing, he can manage or go to training. He can make money out of that but [he needs to look after] his health. He would not have gone down if those punches were nothing. He has to think. In all of his fights that was the first he got hit that badly.”

Donaire and Inoue first met inside the ring in 2019 where they went the distance with the latter winning the fight by way of unanimous decision. Donaire Sr. worked the Filipino’s corner back then but has since been replaced by Donaire’s wife and manager Rachel.

In their highly-anticipated rematch, Donaire was sent on a trip to the canvas when he took a right hand on top in the dying seconds of the opening round. He made it to round two, only to get pummeled to submission by the now WBC, WBA and IBF world bantamweight champion Inoue.

According to Donaire Sr., it is hard to tell the extent of the damage his son took from the Inoue rematch then cited that there was no shame in losing to a younger fighter in Inoue.

“I am thinking about those shots he took. He could be on the receiving end of punches again in his next and you never know the extent of the damage he took. It was not an embarrassment that he fought [and lost to Inoue],” Donaire Sr. stated.

—JMB, GMA News