Older, wiser Nonito Donaire hopes to be 'king in the ring' vs. Jessie Magdaleno

LAS VEGAS - When Jessie Magdaleno got up to speak Thursday during the final press conference for his title fight against WBO super bantamweight champ Nonito Donaire on Saturday, the 24-year-old unbeaten rising star said, among other things, that he "hoped Donaire will bring his 'A' game because he will rip his head off."

Donaire, the five-division champion sitting a few feet away, showed little emotion save for a slight smile.

When it was Donaire's turn to speak a few minutes later, he stood up, turned to his team standing off to the side and screamed "VICTORY!" The team returned the shout, and Donaire smiled and calmly sat down.

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This is the new Nonito Donaire. The old Donaire might have gotten in Magdaleno's face and jawed with him, maybe taken a swing at the youngster.

"I don't have any thoughts about what he says and what he does," the 33-year-old Donaire said minutes later. "My main focus is to win, that's it. Why would I worry about anything he has to say? My focus is one thing: Victory. My only talking will be inside that ring, as I showed today."

Donaire's longtime manager, Cameron Duncan, said the choice of words would fuel Donaire's desire to kick Magdaleno's butt.

"Oh, big time, telling him he was going to rip his head off? You don't talk to anyone that way," Duncan said. "That just shows me he has no respect for the sport. He's a punk."

Magdaleno, who recently dyed his black hair mostly blond, said the two fighters would "brawl it out for either 12 rounds, or whatever round (Donaire) wants to go down in."

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Admittedly, brawls are the type of fights Donaire has relished, though it's usually the opponent who goes down. The "Filipino Flash" stunned the boxing world and won his first title at flyweight in 2007 when he dropped veteran champion Vic Darchinyan with a lightning-quick left hook that was voted Ring Magazine's knockout of the year.

Donaire's career was steaming along on the road to stardom when he met undefeated Cuban defector and master ring technician Guillermo Rigondeaux in 2013 for the unified bantamweight title. Even though Donaire knocked the Cuban down in the 10th round, he was outboxed and lost a unanimous decision.

Duncan said Donaire not only didn't want to fight Rigondeaux, but didn't want to fight anyone at that time. He wanted to retire.

"We talked about it over and over, and he said, 'well, it's a payday,' and it was his biggest payday," Duncan said. "But he didn't train at all for that fight."

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A year and a half later, after Donaire had won the featherweight title in Macau, he faced Puerto Rican slugger Nicholas Walters in New York with the title belt on the line. Walters was undefeated and came in on fight day outweighing Donaire by 25 pounds.

This time, Donaire, despite giving Walters all he could handle early on, was knocked down twice en route to a sixth-round stoppage by Walters.

"Those were two hard losses for him," Duncan said. "But those were fights where he had both guys down and lost. And he comes back again and says, 'I don't care about my age, I want to finish strong and go out on my own terms and fight again.' "

Donaire didn't think the losses derailed his career. "I think it taught me to be who I am now. I take great pride in those losses, and it just made me better," he said.

Duncan said it's always been about whether Donaire wants to do it or not.

"It's never been about his ability. He's one of the greatest ever to fight," Duncan said. "He's fast, he can hit hard, he's a former fighter of the year, he's been a top three pound-for-pound in the world."

The losses did cause Donaire to reflect on his life and how he could turn his career around. He sought help by reading and by attending Tony Robbins self-help seminars.

"I read a lot of books about empowering yourself, and what it created is that I'm grateful," Donaire said. "And when you're grateful you take every moment, from training to waking up in the morning, in gratitude, knowing that this is a blessing, and therefore, you enjoy every moment of it.

"I love going to the gym. Before, I felt like I had a weight on my shoulders, I felt so heavy. Now I'm smiling, I'm happy, and it doesn't matter what life has to offer me. All I know is I have a vision, I have a goal, I have a focus on whatever it may be."

Duncan said the help Donaire sought out seemed to really motivate him.

"If it works for him, it works for him," Duncan said. "I know throughout his whole career, he snuck around on (his wife), and got to partying and drinking, and now that's all out of his life, and he's very clean. And hopefully, now's his time to keep his career going."

Donaire made one other crucial move, hiring former Cuban National coach and defensive specialist Ismael Salas as his trainer for this fight.

"You'll see a big difference," Donaire said. "In the past I've always been a beast in there. Either you kill me or I'll kill you. Then, as I conquered the world in my division, as a fighter, I still have that beast identity but I no longer have the status. But because I didn't have that identity and status in equal parts, it didn't match, therefore I had to figure it out. And the moment I figured out is now.

"Salas brought maturity out in me, being who I am, not the best no longer, but a mature 'king in the ring.' That's what you'll see inside the ring."

Last December, Donaire went to Puerto Rico and won the vacant WBO super bantamweight title against Cesar Juarez. In April, he defended it, knocking out Hungary's Szolt Bedak in the third round.

Now he takes on a tough challenge on Saturday against Magdaleno (23-0, 18 KOs), though the Las Vegas fighter has fought nowhere near the opposition that Donaire has.

Duncan said he hopes this fight leads to one more big payday for his fighter.

"I don't care of it's (Vasyl) Lomachenko after this, (if it) got him a million and a half( paycheck), something like that."

If that happened, Duncan says he believes Donaire would retire. But Donaire said he will keep fighting "As long as it takes to be on top. If I can't beat somebody who I thought I could beat, then I have to step back a bit and that's a pondering moment. But if I'm beating everybody else, I want to be here as long as possible."

For the first time in his career, Donaire, who was born in the Philippines but moved with his family to the U.S. early on, will be fighting on the same card as Manny Pacquiao, the eight-division champion and now a Filipino senator.

"It's just incredible," Donaire said. "It's an incredible opportunity and that's what we're here for."

(Photo of Jessie Magdaleno (L) and WBO junior featherweight champion Nonito Donaire by Getty Images.)