NIETES WANTS SOR RUNGVISAI, GONZALES OR ESTRADA
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 02 Jan 2019
Newly crowned four division world champion Donnie Nietes will defend his WBO super flyweight crown against the winner of a title eliminator bout between fellow Filipino Aston Palicte and Puerto Rican Jose Martinez on January 31 at Viejas Casino and Resort in Alpine, California. Nietes and Palicte fought to a controversial split draw in their clash for the same WBO super flyweight belt at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
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Nietes (42-1-5, 23 KOs) named the world-class fighters he wants to fight next. He wants to face Thai WBC world superflyweight champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (47-4-1, 41 KOs). If not available, he would chose Mexican Juan Francisco Estrada (38-3, 26 KOs) or Nicaraguan Roman Gonzales (47-2, 39 KOs).
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Rungvisai gave then world's pound-for-pound king Gonzales his only two career losses and the Thai champ has also beaten Estrada. Nietes told the media that he does not want to fight fellow Filipino and current IBF junior bantamweight champion Jerome Ancajas who defeated another countryman Jonas Sultan on May 26 for his fifth title defense.
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ALA Boxing Gym trainer Edito Villamor said the win could be attributed to Nietes? dedication in training. "Great performance by Donnie. He really followed what we prepared during training," Villamor told Cebu Daily News. Although Villamor was satisfied with Nietes? victory, the team believed that it should have been a unanimous-decision win for the Murcia-born champion. "It is okay, at least we won. But we saw it as a unanimous win."
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Floyd Mayweather scored a one-sided well-paid victory in an exhibition boxing match in Japan over kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa. It was fought at a weight limit of 147 pounds and there were no judges and the result of the fight does not count on the professional record of both fighters. Nasukawa, considered as one of the best rising combat sports fighter in Japan has no regrets accepting the deal to fight Mayweather.
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"I have worked hard with a big dream in the combat world. Karate, Kickboxing, MMA and Boxing. When I first got the offer I took it in a flash. I thought this was an opportunity of a lifetime," Nasukawa said. "At the end of the day, I got finished, but I have no regrets... I learned that I didn?t work hard enough to earn this opportunity, and I will use this defeat to improve myself and move forward this year."
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According to promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom, former world champion Amir Khan is still undecided on the two offers dangled to him. He can face his British rival and fellow former world champion Kell Brook in the coming months, or he can accept a guarantee of $5 million to fight WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford on March 23 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
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?It?s whether he fights Crawford or Brook, and it could go either way. I think he is torn, really. He wants to fight Brook, but he loves the opportunity to fight Crawford in America," Hearn told IFL TV. Brook did not fight better last December 8 when he struggled to win a decision over big underdog Michael Zerafa in Sheffield, England.
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Top Rank CEO Bob Arum said that it was ridiculous for an ex-professional boxer like Oscar De La Hoya to challenge a near 50-year-old, who has a minimal boxing experience. "Isn't that stupid? Oscar made a fool of himself. He's a boxer, poor Dana White is a talker. Oscar is a boxer. What the hell are they talking about? The dialogue they have between them is pretty good, sort of funny. But the idea that Oscar is going to fight Dana White.. or anybody else is like stupid," Arum told TMZ. "Dana White, he maybe doesn't even stand a chance with me, and I'm 87-years-old. Oscar De La Hoya would destroy him."
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De La Hoya believes that Saul "Canelo" Alvarez would defeat Floyd Mayweather in a rematch. They first fought in 2013, at a catch-weight of 152-pounds, with Mayweather winning a convincing twelve round unanimous decision at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. "I think so (the fight can happen) if Mayweather wants the money so much, it's a real fight," De La Hoya said to A Los Golpes. "Yes, without a doubt [he would beat Mayweather], with a strategy behind the jab, with throwing a lot of combinations, using angles, applying pressure on him like [Julio Cesar] Chavez - and that's how he would defeat him," De La Hoya said.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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