Nietes keeps title; Gorres wins

MANILA, Philippines - Filipino Donnie Nietes pulled off a split decision over tough Manuel Vargas of Jalisco, Mexico to retain his WBO minimumweight crown before a hostile hometown crowd at the El Palenque de la Feria at Epic, Nayarit in Mexico Sunday.

Nietes used his counterpunching skills to defuse Vargas’ attack. The Filipino bet landed more effective punches to earn the nod of the judges in a closely fought duel.

“His punches are not that strong. But he’s got good defense so I tried to time my punches,” said Nietes.

Two judges scored 116-112, 118-110 for the Filipino champion while a third had it 116-112 for Vargas.

A sellout crowd booed the decision but many Mexicans congratulated Nietes on the way out of the arena.

It was Nietes’ third successful defense of the crown, including two in Mexico, as he improved to 25-1-3 with 14 knockouts. Vargas dropped to 26-4-1, including 11 knockouts.

In the other bout, bantamweight Z Gorres scored a TKO over rough Mexican Cruz Carbajal, who refused to come out in the sixth round of their 10-round duel with an injured left arm.

Gorres tagged Carbajal in the opening round with an overhead right that wobbled the Mexican but the Filipino sustained a cut in the right eye from a headbutt in the second round.

Although he kept on landing clean punches, Gorres failed to put away his bull-strong opponent with Carbajal scoring on right straights that appeared to hurt Gorres on occasions.

But what seemed to be a good fight was cut short when Carbajal refused to come out in the sixth.

“My timing was a little bit off,” said Gorres, whose last fight was seven months ago against Roberto Carlos Leyva in Cebu City.

“It’s really different when you haven’t fought for a while. You are not as sharp as you want to be.”

Gorres has now improved to 30-2-2 (17KO) and is looking to fight again on Nov. 13 in Las Vegas.

The twin victories made up for Rodel Mayol’s loss to Ivan Calderon, who retained his Ring junior flyweight crown for the fifth time with a seven-round split technical decision in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico Saturday.

Calderon used his superior footwork and accurate counterpunching to outpoint the game Mayol before an accidental clash of heads opened a nasty cut in the middle of the Puerto Rican veteran’s forehead, forcing the bout to end in the seventh round.

Calderon, who won by two scores of 68-65 (twice) and 65-68, thus raised his fight record to 33-0-1 with six knockouts.

The fight was a rematch of their June bout, which Calderon won by a six-round technical draw after the undefeated champion suffered a gash in his forehead after an accidental headbutt.

Mayol dropped to 25-4-1 with 19 KOs.

In the main event, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (40-0-1 30KO) of Culiacan, Mexico finished off Jason LeHoullier in 2:42 of the first round with a barrage of punches.