Nonito Donaire cancels unification fight with John Riel Casimero over insults hurled at his wife

The Aug. 14 bantamweight unification combat between Nonito Donaire and John Riel Casimero is outwardly off after an escalating collection of arguments led Donaire to say he had canceled the combat. The WBC champion issued a press release on Twitter on Monday evening explaining his stance.

The ultimate straw for Donaire — after preliminary frustrations with WBO champion Casimero’s actions towards Voluntary Anti-Doping Affiliation drug testing — got here when Casimero insulted Donaire’s spouse, Rachel, after she had criticized Casimero for the VADA state of affairs.

“I’m identified to take stands persons are afraid to take,” Donaire wrote. “I STAND for VADA 24/7/365 testing for ALL boxers. This could by no means be refused or delayed. I stand towards BULLYING in any kind. I STAND towards the disrespect and ABUSE of ladies and youngsters bodily, mentally and emotionally. AND I STAND towards misogynistic tradition. A grown man not too long ago informed the mom of my boys to ‘snack on his —-‘. We can not ignore this unprofessional habits. We can not excuse the disgusting trolling memes created of my spouse as ‘only for leisure’. I do not need different professional athletes to cross this line and suppose one of these habits is suitable.”

Donaire continued his clarification of his choice to cancel the combat, once more citing Casimero’s delays in handing over drug testing paperwork. Donaire ended by saying that he refused to provide Casimero “the stage or payday” that may include the unification bout.

“Now we have to take care of a good character, particularly on-line, for the longer term generations to emulate, and never promote ignorance and foul habits,” Donaire wrote. “For the boxing tradition to vary, promoters and networks ought to veer away from unacceptable habits and never encourage it. That being stated, as we have acknowledged earlier than, we canceled this combat after they delayed turning within the VADA paperwork for 5 days. Now we have proof that the opposing facet was neither sincere nor forthcoming in offering the correct info to start VADA drug testing.

“AFTER we canceled the combat, then and solely then did the paperwork out of the blue seem. I do what I say. And as a lot as I wish to knock him out, I will take the excessive street and as an alternative of highlighting his misbehaviors, I am not going to provide his instance the stage or the payday that comes with it.”

After initial claims by the Donaire camp on June 26 that the combat was off due to Casimero’s lack of ability to report his whereabouts to VADA for the testing course of, VADA tweeted out that very same day that each fighters had been formally enrolled of their testing protocols.

Prime Rank’s Bob Arum had beforehand acknowledged that Donaire’s goal ought to he pull out of the combat with Casimero can be to as an alternative rematch WBA and IBF bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue. Inoue beat Donaire within the 2019 Struggle of the Yr.