SMART MOVE? DONNIE NIETES DROPS WBO SUPERFLYWEIGHT TITLE
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 01 Mar 2019
Donnie Nietes, the WBO Superflyweight World Champion dropped the title he recently won at Macao against Kazuto Ioka of Japan instead of being forced to submit to a purse bid and fight another Filipino, Aston Palicte and make less money.
Many may question the move and I won?t be surprised if word comes out from certain people saying that Nietes possibly ?chicken-out? and refuses to fight Palicte for fear of losing this time around.
In my opinion, Nietes opted not to fight Palicte again because his Team feels that he won the first fight that was declared a draw. Besides with WBO setting the purse bid at $100,000 minimum they felt that perhaps they can get bigger and better fights down the road that would allow Nietes to make more than that. As everyone knows, Nietes is getting up there in age and it is far more prudent to pick and chose his fights so he can maximize his worth.
Besides, if the Nietes-Palicte were held at the main event for a fight card, I doubt very much if it can draw a large crowd. One thing for sure, no one can rely on the Filipino fights fans in the US. Not too many of them will buy a ticket to see a fight.
But they will come in droves if given free tickets!
We saw this when Nietes and Palicte fought in LA. If it were not for the main event that involved a Mexican drawing the Latino crowd, the venue would have been virtually empty.
With Nietes vacating the title, Palicte now has an opportunity to win a belt. There is no doubt, WBO will now match him versus the next highest contender for the vacant title.
It can pointed out that #1 Palicte?s likeliest opponent is #4 Kazuto Ioka, as the higher-ranked Juan Francisco Estrada and Ryuichi Funai are already booked for title fights against Srisaket Sor Rungvisai and Jerwin Ancajas, respectively.
If that is the case, there will be a great chance that another Filipino can win the title. Nietes beat Ioka at Macau and there should be no reason for Palicte could not to beat Ioka as well.
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