DONNIE “Ahas” Nietes continued to add to his legend with a decisive seventh round knockout of Argentinean challenger Juan Carlos Reveco in Inglewood, California to retain his International Boxing Federation flyweight title.
Nietes pressed the action from the beginning. Early in the seventh he caught Reveco with a flurry of body shots and then unloaded a left uppercut that sent the challenger crashing to the canvas.
Reveco beat the count but his corner men, realizing the futility of going on, threw in the towel. The referee stopped the fight and awarded the victory to Nietes 53 seconds into the seventh round.
Per CompuBox statistics, Nietes landed 100 of 407 punches, while Reveco could only connect on 40 of his 318 punches.
Nietes tallied his 41th victory with 23 knockouts. Reveco, a former two-time world champion, suffered his fourth professional defeat in 43 bouts.
Nietes stalked the cautious challenger firing surgical jabs which connected while Reveco would often miss wildly. Nietes continued his strategy of controlled aggression until he finally caught the challenger with a combination to the body and a left uppercut which turned out to be the knockout punch.
Nietes first won the crown with a hard-earned decision over Thailand’s Komgrich Nantapech April 29 last year in Cebu City.
The 35-year-old Nietes, a former WBO light flyweight and WBO minimumweight champion, hasn’t lost a fight since his 10-round split decision loss to Angky Angkotta September, 2004.
In the main event of the evening Thai dynamo Srisaket Sor Rungvisai retained his World Boxing Council title by beating challenger Juan Estrada on Saturday, holding on in the later rounds to come out with a close majority decision.
Srisaket compiled a big lead by winning almost all of the first seven rounds in the 12-round super flyweight title fight at the Los Angeles Forum.
But the hard-hitting 31-year-old couldn’t get the knockout he was hoping for against the Mexican, and even looked the more tired of the two in the final round.
“Estrada was a very strong fighter,” Srisaket said in the ring immediately following the decision. “I love his style. It was a tough fight.”
Nietes could conceivably earn a big payday by challenging for the popular champion’s belt.
Srisaket, who improved to 45-4-1 with 40 knockouts, won by a score of 117-111 on one judge’s card. Another judge had him winning 115-113 and Las Vegas judge Dave Moretti scored it a draw, 114-114.
Still, the victory was impressive enough to validate his status as a bona fide star in the super flyweight division, especially after beating former champ Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez twice in 2017.
The pair traded heavy punches in the middle of the ring on Saturday throughout the thrilling fight, especially at the end of the first and fifth rounds. Srisaket, a southpaw, threw 879 punches overall while the challenger threw 671. With AFP