BoxingInsider: I heard you say you didn’t exactly embrace boxing in the beginning. Is that true?

Nonito Donaire: ”I didn’t like boxing at first. I never knew how brave I was until I got in the ring. I was ten years old. I saw Gatti – I didn’t really like it. He was getting too bloody. Too beat up. I was afraid of boxing in the beginning.”

BoxingInsider: What inspired you to proceed in boxing?

Nonito Donaire: ”There’s a lot of inspirations. For me, one thing that got me where I’m at is because I was inspired. And I think that my inspiration has inspired a lot of people out there. To do their best. I grew up – I was picked on. I grew up as one of those kids that people laughed at, one of those kids, that they’ll say was the fat kid on the playground, wants to be last to be picked. So an inspiration – I was called all kinds of names, Snot Face, anything. And then look where I’m at. I think that I can just say, inspire kids out there, you can do anything. You never know what your future is gonna be. If you try your best you can be anybody.”

BoxingInsider: Will you box lefty or righty vs. Omar Narvaez?

Nonito Donaire: ”Whatever advantage we can take, we’ll fight. If it’s better to fight southpaw, we’ll fight southpaw.”

BoxingInsider: Which stance do you feel more confident in?

Nonito Donaire: ”I’m stronger southpaw. I’m stronger. I’m willing to take a punch southpaw. But if I land a punch – it’s over. So that’s one thing, I can do it. I can box so well with my right. I’m fluid, very fluid, I love it, I can dance, I can do anything. I can be as great as Muhammad Ali or as smooth as whoever it is [smiles]. But the point is, when I’m in southpaw, that’s pretty much my normal stance. I have great power in that, that I just realized. I’m learning to.”

BoxingInsider: You keep going up in weight and keeping your power. It’s astonishing.

Nonito Donaire: ”I definitely feel my power. I think it’s just the way I throw my punches. It’s just knowing my body. And delivering the punches, the proper balance and the proper timing – will take anybody out. So the punches you can’t see are the punches that hurt you the most. With the proper way of throwing a punch, it has to be with velocity, speed and power. It all comes along.”

BoxingInsider: You’re naturally quick. Did you train for that speed?

Nonito Donaire: ”Actually, I didn’t have power in the amateurs. I didn’t have knockouts at all. I was always quick, I was always fast. I think after I learned, as I got older, I learned to sit down on my punches. Rather than, back then, I was always afraid to get hit. This time I don’t mind getting hit, as long as I’ll take you out [laughs]. I’m learning to bap-bap-bap (he imitates quick, short inside combination flurry). But this time I’m learning to bap-bap-BOOM. Take you out.”

BoxingInsider: Do you think the knockout of Vic Darchinyan made you realize the power you have?

Nonito Donaire: ”Well, the thing was, as a professional, I’ve dropped every guy that I’ve faced. Back then I wasn’t sure I’d get tired and want to be able to finish him and I’ll get tired. A day before, a week before, two weeks before and I’ll fight, I thought I’ll knock this guy out or I’ll drop him. But I felt the power once I started to show it. But I knew I had the power to do it.”

BoxingInsider: What do you need or want to add to improve your style?

Nonito Donaire: ”There’s a lot to improve. I mean, I’m a fighter who is always trying to learn, a fighter who’s willing to learn, who wants to see myself be better. I know that I need to learn how to jab more. I need to be faster and react to everything. There’s a lot of things that I need to learn. For me, I’m always looking to learning. I want to learn how to be defensive. I want to learn how to be offensive. I want to learn how to fight lefty. I want to learn how to fight lefty like I fight with my right hand. So I’m always there to learn. I’m always a student of the game.”

BoxingInsider: Can you tell that story about meeting Sergio Martinez?

Nonito Donaire: ”Sergio Martinez came up to me at and wanted to take a picture. I’m like, Sergio Martinez wants to take a picture WITH ME??!!?? It was in LA, I think it was Sergio Mora-Shane Mosley fight. We were watching the fight and he came up to me, (asked) if I can take a picture. And I’m like, YOU’RE SERGIO MARTINEZ! You know, like, with me, when I’m off the ring, I’m a big boxing fan. So I’m just a fan. I’m looking at Sergio, like, DID YOU JUST ASK ME?!?!”

PHOTO CREDIT: Stephen Tatarian.

DOB: December 12, 1974 In: Kapsabet, Kenya

First Running Memory: “Is when I was just a little boy, back home. Running with my older brother William. And we decide, Let’s go run. Because my older sister (Mary) was running. So we kept running, running, running around this shopping area around my village, about a five kilometer loop. After I just finished, my sister ask me, So how was it? I told her it was really great. And then she told me, Wow. So you feel like you can run? I’m like, Yes, I love it. So for me, hearing that from her, was really, really good. She was somebody I looked up to. My brother was waiting for me the entire way. I was wearing one of the pair of shoes that she gave me that day. That was the first time I ever wore a shoe to run, ever. With a pair she gave me.”

Running Inspirations: “What inspires me is the fact this sport track and field is the sport of my family. And every time I run, I see my siblings running, I was inspired by my sister to run. And even to inspire my siblings – that is something that keeps me going. And then, of course, the inspiration also comes from the satisfaction that I get – every time I run in a championship and any race that I win – that inspires me. It always feels like the best place to be, it’s a feeling you can’t even describe when you just win something. It’s like: I want to have that again. I want that to happen to me again. After you win, after you perform so well, you just get a sudden feeling that you always want, that makes me want to do it over and over again. And, of course, I love running. It’s a family sport. It started with my family a long time ago, when my dad was running six miles and my mom was running 440 meters. It was unbelievable now that I took this sport and I really enjoy it.”

Last Book Read: “I can’t even remember. It’s been a while actually. Reading like the Newsweek, Time magazine. I like things into politics. But I haven’t read any books lately.”

Favorite Movie: “Oh – Remember The Titans. Denzel Washington.”

First Job: “Washington State University – washing dishes at the cafeteria.”

First Car: “Pontiac Grand-Am – I bought used.”

Current Car: “Mercedes Benz E550 (black).”

Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: “Sorbet. Mango sorbet.”

Pre-Race Feeling: “Okay, before the race my body feels like I’m so tired. I don’t know why, that is the feeling I’m always feeling like. If I’m feeling like so tired, I can’t even walk, I can’t do anything – that’s a good day. Before my warm-up. Then pre-race, warm-up area, sitting down, maybe an hour thirty before the race, I just run the race in my head. Try to see what I’m gonna do. If the race turns out this way, slow, what am I gonna do? If it starts fast, what am I gonna do? if I get blocked? So I have to work on strategy before the race. And by the time I go in there, I’m already prepared.”

Greatest Sports Moment: “The greatest moment of my career is when I won the two gold medals in Osaka in 2007 (1500 and 5000).”

Most Painful Moment: “The 3000 meter race that I ran in 2000 in Monte Carlo. I was a miler and so I hopped into this race – my agent put me in this race, 3000 meters in Monaco – running against the great athlete Daniel Komen, who had the world record in 7:20. And so I got into this race in Monaco. It was the most painful race ever in my life. Because I wasn’t prepared, I wasn’t ready for it. But I ran with the guy. I went 7:33 which was my first event. But it was the most painful. I couldn’t walk the following day. It took me a long time to recover from that and I was sore [smiles]. (What place?) Between fifth and seventh, I can check.”

Funny Career Memory: “Is when another girl from Kenya at Washington State. I was with friends, actually with my wife who was then my girlfriend. And then there was this Kenyan girl who came and I didn’t know she smokes. And so I told everybody, Okay, I’m running into the store, so what does everybody want? And the lady told me, Buy me menthols. I don’t know it’s a cigarette. So I went and I thought it was candy (Mentos). I bought the candy for her. When I came, everybody laughed. Everybody knew what she sent me to buy but I didn’t know it was cigarettes, menthols, Mentos [smiles].”

Strangest Race: “Oh, one time a soccer ball came in during a race, or somebody throw like a ball. But the one that is strange a little bit is one time – I don’t know which meet – but we almost hit the camera arm, the low one, comes down like this. It was coming in like this and we were running and you can see we will hit this. Then, by the time they realized, I think somebody shouted and they moved it. That was like the strangest one. It was in Europe.”

Favorite Athletes To Watch: “I like to watch David Rudisha. I would not say Dave like a few years ago because he was one of the young guys, I didn’t know too much about him. I have followed him with a lot of interest. He’s being managed by my agent. But one thing about this kid is he’s young, extremely talented and makes the race, that, to me, is like the hardest to run, 800 meters, so enjoyable. So nice and relaxed. So easy. And so every time he does something, I mean, I’m a big fan of this young guy. And to tell you how I really like this guy – is that last year when he broke the first world record in Berlin, I was warming up, ready to go run my race. But then he broke the world record while we were warming up. So but where we took the warm-up, we could see it. And by the time I finished my warm-up, I was not in my normal state of mind, like, thinking about my race, strategizing. And I ran a horrible race. Because I was too excited, carrying over. Then, the following week, I was running with him in Rieti, Italy. He took the world record. And we took the warm-up. And I told myself: Don’t make the same mistake you did last week [smiles]. And so he’s so enjoyable to watch.”

Favorite Sport Outside Track & Field: “I like golf. I don’t know much about it but it’s a sport I really love watching. I play – but don’t ask me my score, it’s really bad. But I’m working on it. It’s not bad because I actually made my son like golf.”

Favorite Place To Compete: “Monaco. Beautiful place…the parked cars outside, they have really good food. They have everything. It’s nice. You just walk around outside there and you see all the yachts. It’s so much fun, I like it. It’s not the kind of life I would like to live because it doesn’t seem like real life to me, it seems like, to me, the life in a movie. But it seems so much fun. The race itself is organized very well. And the fact that Prince Albert – he is involved in track and field. He’s like an ordinary man. You can’t believe he’s a prince. And he comes over there, he tells you what you’ve been running. And you’re like, You’re telling me you’ve been watching me?! So that makes me really like him.”

People Qualities Most Admired: “I like people who are down to earth. People who are very respectful. And people who mind their own business, not other people’s business. And I like people who also respect their elders. I grew up with the idea you have your elders. Those are the people you have to respect, doesn’t matter what. When I see people that really pay attention to that and be family-oriented, I love that.”

Bernard Lagat about to win the 2011 Fifth Avenue Mile in New York City.