NIETES ?THE SNAKE? BITES RAMIREZ
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 02 Mar 2009
It was another Philippines versus Mexico encounter, a heated rivalry among two boxing-loving nations, both colonized by the Spanish. Florante ?Little Pacquiao? Condes, Jr. lost his International Boxing Federation minimumweight title to Raul Garcia in La Paz, Mexico last year in what appeared to be a hometown split decision. This time, another Filipino champion stepped into the challenger?s territory to risk his world crown.
However, Donnie Nietes did not fail the Filipino boxing fans and kept the World Boxing Organization minimumweight title in his grasp. ?Ahas? or ?The Snake? bit the Mexican challenger Erik Ramirez and sent him to the canvas four times to easily convince the judges of a unanimous decision in favor of the champion.
John Stewart scored it 113-111, Cesar Ramos saw it 116-108, and Victor Salomon had it 115-109, all for Nietes. The four knockdowns came in the first, fifth, ninth, and twelfth round, respectively. The last one almost finished Ramirez off and sent him struggling to just to close the final round.
Nietes knew too well that if he failed to send the challenger to the canvas, a hometown decision could tilt the call of the judges in favor of Ramirez. Based on the judges? scoring, only Ramos was totally convinced of Nietes? domination of Ramirez. Without the four knockdowns, the results of the other two judges could be different.
Nietes had his own sad experience of losing a controversial split decision when he suffered his only loss in his impressive boxing career. On September 28, 2004, he lost a split decision to Angky Angkota of Indonesia right at the Indonesian capital city of Jakarta. Angkota later lost to AJ Banal by unanimous decision in Mandaue City.
So this time, the champion, who has a 20-foot pet python, silenced the Mexicans, by sending Ramirez to the floor with his crushing right hand. The Murcia, Bacolod City native trains at the ALA Gym and is the only current world champion of the Aldeguer stable.
Prior to the fight, he honed up his skills at the world-famous Wild Card Gym of the world-renowned coach Freddie Roach. Before the battle, Nietes vowed to overcome the hostile crowd and defend his title amidst jeering Mexicans, who are at odds with Filipinos defeating many of their boxers.
Ramirez was a good sport having accepted his loss graciously and considered Nietes a great champion. Nietes improved his record to 24-1-3 with 14 KO wins. Ramirez dipped to 25-6-1 with 19 KO wins.
His big win will catapult Nietes to prominence because he overcame the Mexican barrier in a very impressive win. Since winning the WBO crown, ?Ahas? has not been given the recognition of superstardom in his career.
Many of his proposed fights were cancelled, apparently due to purse problems. And with the big win in Mexico, Nietes will now get more attention in the ALA Gym and will enjoy the top billing as their primary boxer.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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