Nonito Donaire

"I’d love to fight (Vic) Darchinyan again," Donaire said as quoted by multi-awarded fight scribe Ron Borges in an article that was ran by ESPN.com.

"That’s what boxing is (about). I want to fight the best fighters. There were people who said I was a one-punch wonder after Darchinyan, but I came in there and did my thing. I guess my validation was today. I’m here to stay."

Donaire revealed after the bout that he had re-injured his left hand and although he is raring to get it on with the stars of the superfly and bantamweight divisions, his main concern is to remedy the problem.

"It hurt from the first round but it’s nothing new. I was really hurting but I just kept saying ‘you gotta do it. You got to go forward,’" said the 25-year-old from San Leandro, California, who was born in General Santos City.

Borges, formerly of The Boston Globe, wrote: "That he did and brave Luis Maldonado could do nothing to dissuade him of it because Nonito Donaire had come to Foxwoods to do more than win. He was there to issue a declaration of war on any fighter from 112 lbs to 118."

Donaire, nicknamed "The Filipino Flash," had trained mostly in Cebu for the Maldonado duel and he admitted that he was quite heavy when he reported for gym work at the ALA Boxing Club of Tony Aldeguer in October.

Donaire is one of four reigning Filipino world champions with super-fly Gerry Peñalosa as World Boxing Organization (WBO) bantam king, Donnie Nietes as WBO minimumweight titlist and Florante Condes as IBF minimumweight ruler.