Saturday 2 March 2013

Donnie Nietes v Moises Fuentes

Filipino Donnie Nietes (31-1-4, 17) successfully defended his WBO Light Flyweight title against Mexican Moises Fuentes (16-1-1, 8) thanks to a majority draw earlier today in what may well have been his toughest fight in years.

Nietes, one of the forgotten men in the lower weights claimed the title almost 18 months ago when he defeated Mexican Ramon Garcia Hirales by a decision and despite the lengthy reign he had only previously defended the belt once. Against Fuentes, Nietes was facing a genuinely difficult to beat fighter who had retired Ivan Calderon less than a year ago and had defeated the highly regarded Raul "Rayito" Gacria to gain the WBO Minimumweight title (not at stake here).

The fight was action packed as both men gave their all. The action saw Nietes suffering several cuts around his face as both men were tagged hard in a very competitive and difficult to score that neither man really managed to get an upper hard in. Neites started the better winning the opening round, though Fuentes fought back wonderfully with a determined body attack that really made Nietes pay for standing in the pocket. Sadly for Nietes in round 6 he suffered 2 notable cuts, one from a clash of heads and the other from a punch as he then had to battle through the blood as well as the body attack.

By round 10 it was genuinely anybodies fight as the early lead of Fuentes was worn away and sadly neither fighter could do enough in the final rounds to force a clear result as the judges score cards showed the close nature of the bout with 2 judges viewing the bout as a 114-114 draw whilst the dissenting judge gave it to Nietes by a score of 115-113.

With the action of the bout it's fair to say that not only did both fighters keep face, but that a rematch would be equally as interesting and with the result both fighters know they can compete at world level. Saying that however no one would be disappointed in a rematch.

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