Thursday, June 05, 2008 Nietes’ title defense moved anew to September
DONNIE “Ahas” Nietes first title defense of the World Boxing Organizaiton minimumweight crown seems to be “globetrotting.”
First Nietes was scheduled to defend his belt in Dubai, but it was scrapped. Then he got another schedule to fight in Mexico, but that too, has been axed.
ALA president Michael Aldeguer got a call from international matchmaker Sampson Leckowicz yesterday morning and was informed that the Nietes- Eric Ramirez fight was scrapped after the promoters failed to meet the June 1 deadline of their monetary obligations.
With that, ALA Promotions will be taking over and will be promoting Nietes’ mandatory title defense against Daniel “El Olimpico” Reyes (39-5-1, 30 KOs) on Sept. 27 at the Waterfront Hotel and Casino.
“We have no choice. We have to have the fight soon or else Nietes will be stripped of his title,” Aldeguer told Sun.Star Cebu.
Schedule
Nietes won his WBO minimumweight title from Pornswan Kratingdaenggym via unanimous decision last Sept. 9 and hasn’t fought since because of problems with the Dubai and the Mexico promoters.
He was originally slated to fight alongside International Boxing Federation and International Boxing Organization flyweight titlist Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire in Dubai on March 27 which was cancelled. The July 5 fight in Mexico also suffered the same fate.
On this targeted schedule, Aldeguer plans to have a huge card including a title bout for Z “The Dream” Gorres, who is gunning for the WBO Inter Continental super flyweight crown.
Aldeguer plans to improve Gorres’ rank in the WBO so that he will have a crack once again at the WBO super flyweight belt of Fernando Montiel who defeated him in a split decision last year.
The reason why ALA promotions is setting Nietes’ fight on September is because of their busy calendar.
The group also have scheduled fights on July 26 for AJ “Bazooka” Banal fight for the vacant World Boxing Association super flyweight title against Rafael Concepcion and on Aug. 30 for Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista’s title defense of his WBO Inter-Continental belt.
Meanwhile, Aldeguer also told Sun.Star Cebu, yesterday that fighting in the Bautista card will be fellow ALA boy Mark Jason Millegen, who will be gunning for the WBO Asia Pacific crown and young phenom Jason Pagara who will be defending his WBO youth title for the first time. (EKA)
