Jamie Moore believes Nonito Donaire fight will bring the best out of “nervous” Carl Frampton

Once Jamie Moore heard Carl Frampton admit that Nonito Donaire was dangerous he knew that his new charge should fight the four-weight World champion.

Donaire [38(24)-4(1)] is quite possibly the biggest name to ever populate an away corner in the history of Belfast boxing and certainly poses a big threat.

He may no longer be deemed the third best fighter on the planet, but ‘The Filipino Flash’ remains a talent and is someone that could put the breaks on Frampton’s journey back toward World Champion status.

Frampton [24(14)-1(0)] is right, Donaire is dangerous, but Moore believes that threat is exactly what the Belfast fighter needs at this stage of his career.

After Horacio Garcia gave the first ever Irish fighter to unify World titles a tough work out when he returned to the ring in November, and it was suggested afterwards that his team would take more control over who the featherweight would fight next.

With a Windsor Park fight night and a World title shot looming it would have been no surprise if promoter Frank Warren would have plumped for a ranked operator that Frampton was sure to beat without issue.

However, Moore reveals that Donaire was the only name put to the team and suggests such a big fight might be safer than a relative unknown as it ensures Frampton will be at his best.

“The first name got mentioned was Donaire I asked Carl how he felt about that and he said ‘yes, dangerous fight’ and as soon as those words came out of his mouth I knew that would bring the best out of him,” Moore explained to Irish-Boxing.com.

“As soon as you are nervous, worried, or scared something might not go your way it always inspires you to be at your best. When you feel confident or relaxed you overlook things and you take your eye off the ball.”

“Frank was comfortable with it, I was excited about it, as was Carl in a nervous sort of way which will bring the best out of him.”

Moore, who mans the MTK fighter’s corner for just the second time on April 21st, feels Frampton will have to reach peak levels to defeat the Philippine great. The Manchester-based coach stresses the pair are similar elite level operators, but points out to obvious advantages ‘The Jackal’ has.

“Punching power, experience, technical ability Nonito Donaire ticks loads of boxes, but Carl ticks the same boxes. The big thing for me was Donaire is now 35, which means he has slowed down a little, not much, but a little compared to when he was 28, 30 and Carl is naturally bigger.”

“Donaire’s best weight is bantam or super bantam whereas Carl is a natural featherweight so there are a few little advantages in Carl’s favour but not many.”

While the South East Asian is arguably the biggest name Frampton has fought, he also represents the biggest challenge of Moore’s relatively young coaching career.

However, the man who enjoyed a famous Fight of the Decade battle with Matthew Macklin, is confident in his ability to work out a fighter.

The coach, who also looks after Conrad Cummings and Steven Ward, revealed his work with Sky Sports over the years has helped him become a better coach.

In fact, he revealed that punditry work has given him a head start in designing the tactics for this BT Sports-broadcast SSE Odyssey Arena mega fight.

When asked if Donaire was the best fighter he has coached against to date Moore’s response was a simple “definitely,” before he went on to point out he is more than prepared for the challenge.

“But the beauty for me is I have been blessed and lucky enough for the last six years being an analyst on Sky. My job is now to break fights down and go through fighters styles, pick out their strengths and weaknesses and decide who is going to win a fight.

“Again, luckily for me, I haven’t been too bad at it because that has done me a favour training wise. I never analysed fights to that degree when I was boxing so being used to breaking things down for Sky and going more in dept has helped me as a trainer.

“In fact, I worked for Sky when Nonito fought Nicolas Waters and that is the beauty for me. I have followed him for years so I don’t have to look at him fresh. I already know what he does well and I know his vulnerabilities.”

“The areas where Donaire is weak are the areas Carl is good so that’s why, even though it’s dangerous and difficult, I can say not with great confidence, but confidence nonetheless that Carl can with it.”