Donnie Nietes knocks out Moises Fuentes to retain WBO title
“Alam kong tune-up fight lang ito,” said WBO light flyweight champion Donnie Nietes immediately after defeating challenger Sammy Gutierrez back in November 30. “Yung rematch talaga kay Moises Fuentes yung pinaghahandaan ko. Yun talaga ang gusto kong laban.”
After five long months of waiting, the Philippines' longest reigning world champion showed that he was indeed ready for the biggest rematch of his career.
Nietes proved once and for all that he is better than Fuentes as the proud representative of ALA Boxing stable scored a ninth round technical knockout win, Saturday night at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Questions lingered in Nietes’ mind after settling for a draw against Fuentes when they first fought back in March of 2013. He was winning the fight until he decided to slug it out with the Mexican. As a result, Fuentes gathered steam and won most of the latter rounds. In that difficult match, Nietes learned that that veering away from the game plan is not smart. He showed in the rematch that he's a much better fighter now.
With Nietes not even looking for a knockout, it came for him at the 2:56 round of the ninth round. The Filipino floored Fuentes twice in the round to force referee Robert Byrd to call a halt to the bout.
The win for Nietes retained the number of Filipino world champions at two. Aside from him, only Manny Pacquiao holds a major boxing title as John Riel Casimero lost his at the scales in his last title defense.
Nietes raised his record to 33 wins against only one defeat with 19 wins via knockout. Fuentes on the other hand dropped down to 19-2-1.
In the undercard, Milan Melindo had a tough time against Martin Tecuapetla of Mexico but the one-time world title challenger still pulled off a win via majority decision. After 12 rounds, the judges scored the fight 114-114, 116-112, and 115-113.
Melindo won his second straight fight after suffering the first loss on his career against unified WBO and WBA flyweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada. His record now stands at 31 wins against a loss with 12 knockouts while Tecuapetla drops to 11 wins against six losses and two draws.
Rey “Boom-boom” Bautista also scored a win in his comeback fight against Sergio Villanueva also of Mexico. After losing to Juan Ramirez, in April of 2013, Bautista’s career seemed like it was already in peril. A year after, it looked like Bautista has a lot left in the tank.
Baustista won via unanimous decision with scores of 96-94, 97-93, and 96-94.
