PINOY PRIDE 31: NIETES LOOKS SHARP IN PUBLIC SPARRING
By Rene Bonsubre, Jr.
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 21 Jun 2015
CEBU CITY ? WBO junior flyweight champion Donnie ?Ahas? Nietes headlined the public sparring session held Saturday afternoon at the ALA Gym-Banilad Town Center. Nietes (35W-1L-4D,21KO?s) will be defending his world title against former against former unified WBO/IBF minimumweight world champ Francisco Rodriguez, Jr (17W-2L-1D,11KO?s) of Mexico on July 11 at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino.
Nietes sparred three rounds with jr.bantamweight Raul Yu. The champ showed excellent head movement and peppered Yu with sneaky uppercut and counter hooks.Trainer Edmund Villamor said that they chose Yu as one of Nietes? sparmates because he is tall and his style is similar to Rodriguez.
?He is also sparring with Rocky Fuentes and Virgel Vitor,? Villamor said, ?Donnie has already gone twelve rounds in sparring and is ready.?
Conditioning coach Nick Curson was also present. He said that Rodriguez is good but we will see how he?ll react once Donnie hits him in the face.
Nietes, who is also recognized by Ring magazine as the lineal world champion, will be defending his belt for the seventh time. He is also the only Filipino world champion who has successfully retained his title three times in Mexico when he was the WBO minimumweight champion.
Nietes was grinning from ear to ear when asked if he will go for a knockout. ?For the fans, I will try to go for a knockout.?
Nietes spars with Raul Yu and works on the heavy bag during Saturday's public workout at the ALA Gym in Banilad, Cebu.
Magsayo (L) spars with Elmo Traya.
Mark ?Magnifico? Magsayo (10-0,8KO?s) also made an appearance and sparred with Elmo Traya for two rounds. Magsayo will be gunning for the IBF Youth featherweight title against Rafael Reyes (16-4,12KO?s) of Mexico on the main supporting bout of Pinoy Pride 31: Clash of the World Champions.
A special attraction on PINOY PRIDE 31 will be the debut of multi-awarded amateur Kevin Jake Cataraja, who will be fighting a foreigner in his first professional outing.
Cataraja will be pitted against Indonesian Ardi Tefa (6-4,4KO?s) in a six rounder. Cataraja?s sparring session was against Jonas Sultan.
KJ Cataraja.
Fans also got to see Roli Gasca vs Mark Bernaldez, Virgel Vitor vs Gerard Suico and ?King? Arthur Villanueva,who sparred with Kenneth Gentallan. Villanueva will be fighting for the vacant IBF world superflyweight title on July 18 in Texas against McJoe Arroyo of Puerto Rico.
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