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The Year in Sports: Three Filipino champs retain their belts

(Editor's note: The Yahoo! Philippines Sports team looks back at 2013's memorable moments in sports with a series of year-end articles on the topics and events that had the biggest impact on our readers.)

While Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire and Manny Pacquiao both bounced back in 2013 with scintillating performances, three other Filipino fighters extended their reigns as world champions and are determined to stay on top of their divisions for as long as they could.

One of the longest reigning world champions, WBO light flyweight champion Donnie Nietes who aims to surpass the great Gabriel “Flash” Elorde’s reign as junior lightweight champion for almost seven-and-a-half years, is already gearing for a grudge rematch against Mexico’s Moises Fuentes who has retained his mandatory challenger status after Nietes retained his title with a close majority draw last March 2, 2013.

When big-time boxing made a welcome return to the Araneta Coliseum on November 30 this year, Nietes put on one of his best performances so far when he hammered former WBC silver champion Sammy Gutierrez, dropping him twice in the opening round and one more time in the third to win by a TKO.

Nietes hopes to display the same precise punching and the power with which he demolished Gutierrez when he battles Fuentes in a fight that could take place possibly on February 22 at the Cotai Arena in Macau. ALA Promotions president Michael Aldeguer discussed this with Top Rank promoter Bob Arum when they met during the Donaire-Drachinyan rematch in Corpus Christi, Texas last November 9. Aldeguer also communicated with Zanfer Promotions Fernando Beltran but while Beltran welcomed the proposal as “a good idea” there have been no formal negotiations as yet.

He said he plans to meet with Arum and Top Rank matchmakers Bruce Trampler and Brad Goodman when he visits Las Vegas in January. He added Nietes is “ready for that and wants to fight Fuentes again.”

Another exciting ALA fighter is current WBO minimum weight champion Merlito “Tiger” Sabillo, a former street fighter from Bacolod City who successfully defended his title twice in 2013. Sabillo scored a vicious one-punch knockout of Colombia’s Jorlie Estrada and retained the 105-pound crown with a split draw against previously undefeated 21-year-old Nicaraguan Carlos Buitrago on the same “Pinoy Pride XXIII” fight card of ALA Promotions in cooperation with the giant broadcast network ABS-CBN at the same venue where Nietes battered Gutierrez.

ALA president Michael Aldeguer told Yahoo Philippines that Sabillo “learned a lot from the Buitrago fight and if the Nicaraguan is retained as the mandatory challenger that fight will have to take place within nine months” and he’d like to bring that fight again to Manila.

Aldeguer said Sabillo may have to fight a voluntary defense in May but before that he plans to have him train in the US to “hone his skills and get more exposed because he has the guts and a fighting heart which make him an exciting fighter.”

At the same time the ALA Promotions president indicated that since they have signed an agreement with PR boxing of Peter Rivera, Sabillo may face his next opponent in Puerto Rico in May which may be former world champion Ivan Calderon “if he plans to come back.”

The third world champion and another exciting fighter who is dead set on retaining his IBF light flyweight title is Johnreil Casimero, who is handled by Samy Gello-ani in partnership with international matchmaker Sampson Lewkowicz.

The 23-year-old Casimero is no stranger to adversity, having won the title in a riot-marred fight in Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires with a sensational 10th round TKO of Argentina’s Luis Alberto Lazarte on February 10, 2012.

After he was dropped in the fifth round and was penalized a point in rounds four and eight in what turned out to be a knockdown, drag-out scuffle, Casimero sent Lazarte crashing to the canvas twice in round nine and once in round ten forcing referee Eddie Claudio to call a halt at 1:09 of the round.

The drunk truckers union supporters of Lazarte staged a full-scale riot that prevented Casimero from being handed the belt as they pelted the fighter, Gello-ani and his trainer with chairs., bottles and other debris forcing Casimero to take cover under the ring before he was escorted by police to his dressing room.

Following a close split decision victory over Mexico’s Pedro Guevara in Sinaloa on August 4, 2012 Casimero won an easy 12-round unanimous decision over highly touted Luis Alberto Rios of Panama before he put on his finest display of skill and punching power to score an 11th round TKO over Felipe Salguero of Mexico dropping his foe in rounds 8, 9 and11 before referee Wayne Hedgepeth decided he had seen enough and waved it off at 1:34 of the penultimate round.

Salguero was the same fighter who lost by a unanimous twelve round decision to WBO light flyweight champion Nietes in a title fight on June 2, 2012 at the Resorts World Hotel.

Clearly, the three little big men have the talent and most of all the fighting heart to defend their titles against all-comers even as they hope that the more eminent and popular fighters such as Pacquiao, Donaire and former WBA/WBO flyweight champion Brian Viloria regain the titles they lost and continue the rising tide of Philippine boxing in 2014.

OTHER YAHOO! SPORTS YEAREND SPORTS PIECES:

Funniest sports photos of 2013

13 Filipino athletes who excelled in 2013

The Year in Sports: In Memoriam 2013

The Year in Sports: My 10 favorite Pinoy Football goals in 2013

The Year in Sports: Philippine volleyball takes off