‘Hometown robbery?

AFTER 12 grueling rounds of all-out action, two hands were raised by referee Jack Reiss as the final verdict was announced--a majority draw.

Donnie Nietes (31-1-4, 17 KOs) walked away with his shiny World Boxing Organization (WBO) light flyweight belt, while challenger and current WBO mini-flyweight champion Moises Fuentes (26-1-1, 20 KOs) won’t be bringing home an extra belt to Mexico after their world title fight last Saturday night at the Waterfront Hotel and Casino ended in deadlock.

“I was surprised that it ended in a draw. I think I won,” said the 30-year-old Nietes, who felt that he did enough to win the fight.

Filipino judge Danrex Tapdasan had Nietes winning, 115-113, while American judges Adalaide Byrd and Pat Russell both saw the fight as a 114-114 draw.

Nietes started out strong and was accurate with his punches, while Fuentes was aggressive and targeted the body. The first few rounds were close as both boxers traded leathers back and forth. In the fifth Nietes connected with a right hook to the head that stunned the 25-year-old Mexican. Nietes pressed the attack but failed to finish off Fuentes.

In the sixth round the tides changed as Nietes suffered two huge cuts in both eyebrows, which was due to an accidental headbutt and a punch.

Nietes rarely threw punches and settled to bob and weave his way out of Fuentes’ aggressive attack in the seventh, eighth and ninth rounds. But Nietes once again started to throw and land his shots in the 10th round. Nietes rocked Fuentes with a right uppercut to the head in the 11th and nullified the Mexican’s attack with his slick side-to-side movement. Nietes closed out the fight strong, landing most of his
punches, while the always aggressive Fuentes mostly hit thin air.

“If you look at the fight, Fuentes was the aggressor but Donnie threw most of the clearer punches. It was a close fight but clearly Donnie won the fight,” said ALA Promotions president Michael Aldeguer. “I was surprised at the judges’ decision but they have their own opinion and I respect that.”

WBO Asia-Pacific vice-president Leon Panoncillo, who supervised the world title fight, was contented with the judges’ decision because it was a close fight that could have gone either way.

“In a fight against a real good champion versus another real good champion, it will be a close fight. A draw is a perfect result. Honestly it was a good result and it showed that there was no hometown decision,” he told Sun.Star Cebu after the fight.

Aldeguer said that he will review the fight and decide from then on, whether they will be chasing a rematch or move on and look for other big fights.

“If there will be a rematch I want it to be in Las Vegas in the US. Next time I won’t leave it to the hands of the judges and knock him out,” said Nietes.

Unbeaten WBO Asia-Pacific super bantamweight titleholder Genesis Servania (20-0, 7 KOs) continued his rise to prominence as he scored a seventh round technical knockout over veteran two-time world title challenger Angky Angkota (26-9-1, 14 KOs) in the co-headliner.

Referee Tony Pesons stopped the fight at the 2:59 mark of the seventh after seeing that Angkota didn’t want any more of Servania’s punishment.

Jimrex Jaca (37-6-3, 21 KOs) displayed his veteran savvy and demolished a game Rachamongkol Sor Pleonchit (13-5, 5 KOs) in an exhilarating brawl.

Jaca and Sor Pleonchit were at it all night long and traded leathers back and forth.

The 29-year-old Cebuano landed a vicious overhand left that knocked down Sor Pleonchit. But the Thai stood up and continued to exchange vicious blows. Jaca finally landed a bone-crushing right hook-left straight combination that knocked out Sor Pleonchit in the 53 second mark of the seventh.