Nietes Could Have Been Our Strong Fallback Fighter of the Decade Bet
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 20 Jan 2020
Had he not vacated his world title and been inactive last year, Donnie 'Ahas' Nietes could have been our strongest fallback bet for the Fighter of the Decade award in support of Manny Pacquiao.
The Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) has recently declared Floyd Mayweather, Jr. as the best fighter of the decade just passed (2010-2019) notwithstanding the fact that the American retired in late 2015.
The BWAA members, predominantly Americans with some coming from North and Latin America, Europe and Asia, including the Philippines, gave most of their votes to Floyd on the strength of his undefeated record.
Floyd won all nine fights in the five years he fought during the decade and retired undefeated tying the 49-0 record of heavyweight great Rocky Marciano who retired unblemished in 1955.
He came back briefly in 2017, beating UK mix martial arts star Conor Mcgregor in a sanctioned boxing match to raise his record to 50-0 but many till to date are continuously questioning that as Floyd, they contended fought a non boxer.
The BWAA majority voters also cited Floyd's title victories over Canelo Alvarez in 2013 and Manny Pacquiao in 2015, incidentally his closest rivals for the award as their biggest argument in choosing the American for the decade honor.
However, many fans and some experts worldwide are questioning the BWAA choice of Floyd as the American fought for just half of the ten year period. They also raised the issue of his arrogant behavior and unsavory conduct outside the ring which at one point resulted in him serving a prison term for domestic violence involving his wife and children.
Many also observed that Floyd was not the only undefeated world champion fighter during the decade given that BWAA criteria, if ever there have been some set to guide the voters, did not give much weight to the length of time of activity or longevity of the nominees.
Indeed, if undefeated fight record was the main criterion, not only Andre Ward (who retired unbeaten as world light heavyweight champion in 2017) and Naoya Inoue should be included.
But also prominent world champion fighters as Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder. Especially Wilder who has been fighting since 2008 and an active undefeated WBC world heavyweight champion from 2015 to date. Wilder currently totes a 41 wins, 40 by knockout, 0 loss and 1 draw record.
Given these reasonings, it was not far fetched to think that Donnie Nietes could have been nominated and emerged as one of the strongest candidates for the Fighter of the Decade award had he not vacated his WBO super bantamweight title and been inactive for the whole of 2019.
We could have had Nietes as fallback for Pacquiao whose own bid was weakened by his loss to Floyd and a rather unimpressive 12-4 record during the period.
Between 2010 and 2018, Nietes fought 19 times mostly for world titles, winning 18, nine within the distance as against a single draw.
Nietes started the decade as reigning WBO minimumweight champion having won the title in 2007. He won the WBO light flyweight title in 2011 which he held until 2016. The following year, he annexed the IBF flyweight title which he held until November 2018 when he won the vacant WBO super flyweight title over Kazuto Ioka.
He figured in 15 world title fights during the decade, winning all but one which ended in a draw against countryman Aston Palicte in 2018 which many believed he should have won.
But early last year, Nietes chose to vacate his WBO super flyweight title than defend it against the same Palicte. Unable to get fights versus the other big name champions in the division, Nietes opted to remain inactive for the rest of the year.
That costed him as he also lost his pound for pound ranking which he had attained and managed to keep for most of the decade.
Sayang. In hindsight, a lost opportunity.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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