NIETES CHOICE OF OPPONENTS TRIMMED DOWN TO VELARDE OR JUAREZ
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 15 Sep 2014
The opponents of WBO light flyweight champion Donnie ?Ahas? Nietes in a voluntary defense of his title at the Waterfront Hotel and Casino in Cebu on November 15 in the highly successful "Pinoy Pride" series has been trimmed down to two young Mexican fighters - Carlos Velarde who is ranked No. 10 by the WBO and Saul Juarez who is ranked No. 11.
ALA Promotions president Michael Aldeguer told the Manila Standard/Viva Sports he has communicated with Zanfer Promotions
of Mexico requesting and picked two names from the list of possible opponents submitted by Zanfer Promotions which is headed
by Fernando Beltran.
The Nietes title defense is not a mandatory and ALA has the option to choose.
Aldeguer told the Manila Standard/Viva Sports that they picked the 23 year old Velarde who has a record of 26-3-1 with 14 knockouts and Juarez who is also 23 years old and has a record of 20-3 with 11 knockouts.
Velarde won the vacant IBF Latino minimum weight title with a 10 round split decision over Jose Argumedo last May 3. He previously fought for the WBA minimum weight world title and lost by a 5th round TKO to Japan's Ryo Miyazaki.
Juarez won his last fight on May 31 this year beating Erick Lopez in an eight round bout after earlier scoring a unanimous eight round decision over veteran Luis Ceja last February 8.
Aldeguer also mentioned plans for Nietes to move up to flyweight to challenge Juan Francisco Estrada who won the
WBO/WBA flyweight titles via a split decision over Brian Viloria and then successfully defended it against two other Filipino
contenders Milan Melindo and Richie Mepranum before scoring a lopsided 11th round TKO over former world light flyweight champion and one time No. 8 on the Ring Magazine pound for pound rankings, Giovani Segura.
Also seeing action on the ?Pinoy Pride XXVIII? November card in cooperation with the giant broadcast network ABS-CBN will be Milan Melindo, AJ ?Bazooka? Banal and the exciting Prince Albert Pagara, the undefeated IBF super bantamweight Intercontinental champion.
Aldeguer said that he plans to bring in American strength and conditioning coach Nick Curson who did a terrific job with Nietes prior to his demolition of Mexico?s Moises Fuentes via a 9th round TKO last May 10 in a rematch at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Nietes is chasing the record of the late, great Gabriel ?Flash? Elorde who reigned as world junior lightweight champion for 7 years and 3 months while Nietes should he win as expected on November 15 would have reigned as a world champion for 7 years 1 month and 15 days.
Photo: Donnie Nietes (R) connects with a left on Moises Fuentes during their WBO world title fight last May 10, 2014.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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