FEATHERWEIGHT FURY: DONAIRE, VETYEKA MAKE WEIGHT
By Rene Bonsubre, Jr.
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 30 May 2014
MACAU ? Defending champion Simpiwe Vetyeka of South Africa and challenger Nonito Donaire of the Philippines made the division limit for their 12 round main event battle this Saturday at the Cotai Arena. Vetyeka, the ?super? champion of the WBA in the featherweight division, weighed in at 125.5 lbs while Donaire was on the button at 126 lbs.
?I believe in myself, I am ready for Donaire.? Vetyeka said on stage, ?I will bring the title back to South Africa.?
?I feel great. I am thankful for the opportunity to fight for another title,? Donaire countered, ?Every fight is a must win for me.? The Filipino Flash was referring to his loss to Guillermo Rigondeaux of Cuba shortly after receiving the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) Fighter of the Year award.
This will be the first defense for Vetyeka of the title he won from Chris John of Indonesia last December.
Donaire steps on the scales.
Vetyeka weighs in.
The main undercard match will feature the ?regular? featherweight champion of the WBA , Nicholas Walters of Jamaica vs. Vic Darchinyan of Australia. Walters weighed 125.5 while Darchinyan stepped on the scales at 125.8 This will be the second defense for Walters of the title he captured in 2012.
The IBF featherweight title will also be on the line when Evgeny Gradovich of Russia defends against Alexander Miskirtchian of Belgium. Both were at 125.5 lbs.
The official weigh-in was held Friday afternoon at the Bellini Lounge of the Venetian Macau.
The match-up that could very well steal thunder from the undercards is the IBF eliminator between prospect Chris Avalos (121.5lbs) of the U.S and Yasutaka Ishimoto (121.8lbs) of Japan.
Ishimoto created a stir here last year when he beat former champ Wlifredo Vazquez,Jr of Puerto Rico by majority decision. Avalos is known to Filipino fans for beating Pinoy fighters Drian Francisco and Rolly Lunas.
Walters and Darchinyan.
Gradovich and Miskirtchian.
Rex Tso and Ratchasak Kokietgym.
For the other undercard bouts - Rex Tso (116.5) of Hong Kong vs Ratchasak Kokietgym (115lbs) of Thailand for the WBO Asia-Pacific jr.bantamweight title, Ik Yang (137.5lbs) of China vs Geisler AP (138.5lbs) of Indonesia, Olympic silver medalist Esquiva Falcao (161.5lbs) of Brazil vs Eunchang Lee (162lbs) of South Korea and Macau?s Kuok Kun Ng (152lbs) be pitted against Indonesia?s Muhammad Imam (147lbs).
The first bout of the evening will start at 6PM.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Rene Bonsubre, Jr..
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