Nietes retains crown via majority draw

CEBU CITY, Philippines  â€“ Donnie “Ahas” Nietes escaped with a 12-round majority draw against Mexican Moises Fuentes and kept the WBO light flyweight crown in the Pinoy Pride XVIII: World Champion vs World Champion fight card at the full-packed Pacific grand ballroom of the Waterfront-Cebu City Hotel and Casino here Saturday night.  

Nietes bucked severe cuts on both his eyebrows in the sixth – one caused by a head-butt and the other inflicted by Fuentes’ power punches – and used his counter-punching skills to neutralize the Mexican challenger’s attack and gain the draw that caught majority of the crowd, including himself, by surprise.

“I was really surprised that it was a draw. I believe I clearly won the fight,” said Nietes, with blood still dripping from a nasty cut over his left eye due to an accidental head-butt in round six. He also suffered a gaping gash on his right eyebrow caused by a vicious punch in the same round.

ALA Promotions president and CEO Michael Aldeguer also felt Nietes had done enough to retain the crown.

“He’s (Fuentes) the aggressor but if you look at the whole thing, it was Nietes who landed the clear punches,” said Aldeguer. “I was a bit surprised by the decision but the judges have their own opinion and we have to respect them.” 

Nietes kept his cool and used a tactical game in dealing with the body-punching Fuentes, who pressed his attack from the outset. He took at least three of the first four rounds and badly hurt the Mexican fighter with a series of head shots in the fifth.

Nietes, however, slowed down after sustaining a deep cut on both his eyebrows, enabling Fuentes, the reigning WBO minimumweight titlist, to dictate the tempo .

But Nietes sprang back to life in the 11th round, pounding Fuentes with a combination of hits to the head and stinging jabs while employing a wily defensive stance which he carried over until the final bell to the delight of the crowd.

Still, the pride of Murcia, Negros Occidental failed to get the nod of the two judges.

“It was a very close fight that could have gone either way,” said fight supervisor and WBO vice president Leon Panoncillo.

The 30-year-old Nietes, who improved to 31-1-4, including 17 KOs, said he tried his best to finish off Fuentes in the early rounds, but the Mexican proved he’s up to the challenge and gamely took all his rival’s power punches.

“I thought I could knock him out in the first three rounds, but he was so tough. I hit him with solid shots several times, but he was strong enough to take them all,” said Nietes, who is open to the possibility of a rematch but wants the fight to take place in the US and not in Mexico.

In the supporting main event, Genesis “Azukal” Servania kept his unbeaten record, including the WBO Asia-Pacific super bantamweight belt, as he came away with a resounding seventh round TKO victory over Indon fighter Angky “Time Bomb” Angkota.

 In the fightcard’s most impressive showdown, Jimrex “The Executioner” Jaca pulled off a seventh round stoppage of Rachamongkol Sor Pleonchit of Thailand to extend his winning streak to nine.

After flooring the Thai with a big left overhand in round two, Jaca locked himself up in a furious exchange of heavy blows and wild shots with Rachamongkol in the succeeding four rounds.

Jaca immediately jumped the gun on Rachamongkol in the seventh, sneaking in a powerful right hook and followed it up with a crushing left straight to the face that sent the Thai flat on his back for good with 53 seconds left in that stretch.