DONNIE NIETES, THE REAL PINOY PRIDE, IN DOMINATION
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 30 Apr 2017
Donnie ?Ahas? Nietes once more came into the record books when he captured his third world crown when he dominated Komgrich Nantapech of Thailand with a unanimous decision win. The scores are 117-111, 117-111 and 115-113. Katsuhiko Nakamura of Japan and Greg Ortega of the Philippines gave Nietes the very wide margin of 117-111.
While Thai judge Somsak Sirianant gave Nietes a slim margin of 115-113, scoring more rounds for his compatriot. It was just the second fight for Nietes in the flyweight division. Although he hardly made the weight limit in three tries, he won over his Thai opponent using a tactical fight.
Nietes started in fine form in the earlier rounds connecting skilfully with his vaunted uppercuts and right crosses. But Nantapech appeared unfazed as he began to pile up points in the middle rounds. The ALA Gym standout retaliated and appeared to be more prevailing in the later rounds as he connected more solid punches to the head and body of the visiting fighter.
He failed to score a knockdown and subsequently a knockout. He has now won his last three fights by unanimous decision. This raised questions on whether age has affected his ability to floor an adversary. The oddsmakers placed Nietes a heavy favorite at 25-1 in the fight. According to BoxRec, his record now raised to 40-1-4 with 22 KO wins for a 49% KO rate. While Nantapech decreased to 22-4-0 with 15 stoppages, but his KO rate is 58%.
In his first bout in the flyweight division, Nietes grabbed a convincing unanimous decision win over Edgar Sosa to wear the vacant WBO intercontinental flyweight belt. Turning 35 years this coming May 13, the Murcia-born champion has held the WBO minimumweight title and the WBO lightflyweight crown. Now he annexed the IBF world flyweight belt to become the only third Filipino to win three world titles after Manny Pacquiao and Nonito Donaire.
Nietes has a colourful 14-year professional boxing career, becoming the longest reigning Filipino world champion breaking the record of Gabriel ?Flash? Elorde and protecting his unblemished record for nearly 13 years now.
He fought against Sosa and Juan Alejo at the StubHub Center in Los Angeles, California and won in domineering fashion. But the popularity which made Pacquiao and Donaire world renowned champions still eluded Nietes. Both Pacquiao and Donaire were rated among of the top ten pound-for-pound fighters in the world.
Nietes needs to face more celebrated foes in the next fights to reach the big time and big purses. ALA Boxing Promotions must chart the future of their lone world champion to enable him to add more feathers to his cap to become trendier worldwide. Nietes, however, has his name already carved among the best Filipino world champions and even Asian world title holders. He is ?The Real Pinoy Pride.?
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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