Source: ABS-CBN News
MANILA, Philippines – Filipino champion Donnie “Ahas” Nietes made a smashing debut as a junior flyweight by knocking out Mexico’s Armando Vazquez in just 1 round at the La Salle Coliseum in Bacolod City on Saturday.
Nietes tagged Vazquez with a crushing right hook, knocking down the Mexican during the main event of Pinoy Pride 5, according to a Philboxing.com report.
Vasquez failed to make the count, prompting referee Bruce McTavish to award Nietes the knockout victory 2:26 into the opening round.
Before landing that knockout punch, Nietes had to survive a stunning left hand he received from Vazquez.
With the feat, Nietes improved his record to 28-1-3 (16 KOs). Vasquez, on the other hand, settled at 18-6.
Nietes, the reigning World Boxing Organization (WBO) minimumweight champ, is now poised to face the winner of the WBO interim junior flyweight title bout between Jesus Geles and Ramon Garcia Hirales.
Other Pinoys prevail
Other Filipino pugs also bannered the country's flag after winning their respective undercard matches.
Jason Pagara, a Cagayan de Oro native, won the WBO Asia Pacific Youth lightweight crown by knocking out Tanzanian Deo Njiku in the 2nd round.
In the 1st round, Pagara dominated Njiku by sending the Tanzanian down the canvas twice.
Njiku survived the knockdowns and used his powerful rights to make the fight even.
Pagara, however, used a counter left hook to end the fight in the succeeding round.
The Filipino now has a record of 26-1-0 while Njiku dropped to 11-5.
Meanwhile, North Cotabato's Lorenzo Villanueva successfully defended his WBO Oriental featherweight crown against Indonesia's James Mokoginta via technical knockout (TKO).
Cebu's Roli Gasca also prevailed against Thailand's Ngaotawan Sithsaithong by TKO.
Source: ABS-CBN News
MANILA, Philippines – Two Filipino boxers are going after regional titles when they face their respective opponents in the undercard of "Pinoy Pride 5."
Jason Pagara and Lorenzo Villanueva will have separate matches against a pair of African fighters in the supporting bouts of the event, which headlines the light flyweight match between world minimumweight champion Donnie Nietes and Mexican Armando Vazquez.
Pagara will battle Deo Njiku for the vacant World Boxing Organization (WBO) Youth Asia-Pacific junior welterweight title.
The Misamis Oriental native Pagara, who has a record of 25 wins, 1 loss and 14 knockouts, is coming off a 1st-round knockout victory over Billy Sumba last January.
Meanwhile, the undefeated Villanueva will be fighting Ramadhani Shauri for the WBO Oriental featherweight championship.
The Filipino featherweight, who hails from Midsayap, Cotabato, has 20 wins.
Pinoy Pride 5, jointly promoted by ALA Promotions and ABS-CBN Sports, will take place at the La Salle Coliseum in Bacolod on Saturday.
Source: Oliver Suarez, Fight Hype
-- The Philippines always had a fondness for boxing, the reason that it has always been a hotbed for talented young boxers. The emergence of Manny Pacquiao as a major star in boxing has only added more talent to its boxing stable by influencing many of the country’s younger generation to participate in the sport.
It can be argued that Philippines is as great a boxing nation as Mexico and Puerto Rico. Mexico and Puerto Rico are only more recognized because before Pacquiao, Filipinos were not given the same opportunities to display their skills at the world stage.
But now the country is slowly gaining respect as more opportunities become available to Filipino boxers because of Pacquiao’s popularity and the magnitude of the Filipino market.
The Philippines now currently has four major title holders with Filipino descent: Nonito Donaire, Donnie Nietes, Manny Pacquiao, and Rodel Mayol.
Still, it’s still questionable if the success of Philippine boxing can be sustained after Pacquiao. Would promoters and others continue to invest on Filipino boxers after Pacquiao?
It depends if the most influential figures in Philippine boxing has already set a stable foundation to ensure its continued success after the current pound for pound king retires. Did they properly take advantage of all the opportunities provided by Pacquiao’s success?
They certainly had enough time to develop a stable foundation since Pacquiao has been a star of the sport for quite sometime
The truth is they have not because their priorities may not have been in the right place and thus affected the potential success of many Filipino fighters.
The problem is most of the Filipino boxers are not being provided the best chance to win. Success is great but it can lead to greed and questionable decision making.
Ciso Morales is a great example of a fighter of this questionable decision making. Now some are questioning his heart and courage because of his devastating loss to Montiel. But the question that should be put out is if he was given the best chance to win. Morales is a young kid who has not fought any notable opponent, yet was pitted against a world class fighter in Fernando Montiel. Not only that, he had to go down in weight to face him.
If they are not given the best chance to win, then they are destined to only attain mediocre type of success. Those who are responsible for these boxers’ careers must evaluate their priorities. Do they care more about immediate success and make money in the short term or do they care about the long term success of their boxers?
A great example of how to properly prepare a fighter is Andre Ward. For the longest time, his handlers and he were criticized for not facing elite fighters or fighting for a title. It was because his handlers wanted him to be both physically and mentally prepared before he stepped up in competition. Now, he just beat a world class opponent in Kessler and is now considered one of the best young fighters in the game.
Developing young fighters who can contend is a major factor in ensuring the success of Philippine boxing. This doesn’t only include that they are physically and mentally ready, but ensuring that they are provided the right strategies for their fights and choosing the right opponents that can help them prepare for future fights against elite opponents. Constantly pitting them against journeyman fighters to hype up their record only does more harm than good in the long term.
Filipinos are just like any other sports fans, they want winners and if they are constantly provided mediocre products then sooner or later they will stop supporting it.
If that happens, then Philippine boxing might again be on the outside looking in after Pacquiao. Filipino fighters once again will find it difficult to get those opportunities to fight for world titles against notable opponents.
Another factor that must be answered is if many of the Filipino fans who support Pacquiao are truly boxing fans or just fans of the Filipino icon.
It is a question that is still need to be answered. How many Filipinos who are ‘supposedly’ boxing fans know about other boxers such as Eden Sonsona, Marvin Sonsona, Aj Banal etc? The fact is a great number of Filipinos I’ve come across with are not familiar with any of the names mentioned above and only know Pacquiao.
Will they continue to support and have the same passion for the sport even after Pacquiao in order to entice promoters to keep investing on Filipino fighters?
Nonito Donaire Jr. is a great champion who just keeps on winning and it’s a wonder why he has not gotten the support of more Filipino fans. People are quick to judge him for failing to fight notable opponents. Some of that may be due to some fighters’ hesitancy to fight a fighter of Donaire’s caliber, but it’s also because the financial incentives might not be enough for them to face ‘The Filipino Flash.’
Filipinos need to support Donaire to convince promoters that the Filipino market in boxing is not dependent on Pacquiao. In fact, it might be necessary and not an option because if other Filipino fighters are only achieving mediocre success, then the responsibility of keeping the fire burning for Philippine boxing will all fall on Donaire’s shoulders.
So will Philippine boxing continue its current success after Pacquiao retires? Only time will tell.
What do you think?
Source: Rick Reeno, Boxing Scene
-- In the wake of Brian Viloria's upset loss to Carlos Tamara, there is already some talk of a possible scenario where WBO minimumweight champion Donnie Nietes (26-1, 15KOs) would move up to junior flyweight to challenge unbeaten WBO champion Ivan Calderon (33-0, 6KOs). Nietes fought on Saturday's Viloria-Tamara undercard, stopping Jesus Silvestre in ten rounds.
Viloria was being positioned for a unification with Calderon for the month of April. Peter Rivera of PR Best Boxing told BoxingScene.com that a two fight series was being planned but in order to close the deal Viloria had to win the fight with Tamara. On paper Viloria was the heavy favorite in the fight. Viloria's stamina betrayed him in the late rounds. He built an early, but faded down the stretch before the referee stopped the action in the twelfth.
Source: abs-cbnnews.com -- Loses IBF title to Colombian
Filipino boxer Brian Viloria is now in stable condition after being rushed to the hospital following his loss to Colombian challenger Carlos Tamara in their International Boxing Federation (IBF) junior flyweight title fight on Saturday.
Viloria was taken to the San Juan de Dios Hospital after collapsing in his dressing room due to exhaustion following his 12th round technical knockout (TKO) loss to Tamara.
He was later transferred to the Makati Medical Center where he underwent medical tests, including a CT scan.
“Right now he's stable,” Dr. Nasser Cruz of the Games and Amusement Board (GAB) told dzMM.
“They did a lot of medical test, CT scan was good, normal. They were worried about the cervical spine because Brian complained of neck pains. They did a scan also. They did chest X-rays,” he added.
Cruz said Viloria will have to stay in the hospital overnight for further observation.
"Boxers who have a difficult fight receive a lot of head punches. So they really have to stay in the hospital just like other boxers like [Oscar] dela Hoya, [Miguel] Cotto and [Ricky] Hatton," he said.
Viloria suffered a 3-centimeter cut on his right eyebrow during the fight. He also sustained bruises on his face because of the powerful blows from the Colombian boxer.
Tamara trailed until latter rounds
According to PhilBoxing.com, Tamara was actually trailing on the scorecards going into the 9th round, but started a scorching rally as Viloria faded in the late rounds.
The Colombian pinned an visibly exhausted Viloria on the ropes in the 12th round prompting referee Bruce McTavish to stop the fight at 1:45 of the round.
Viloria went down twice during in the 12th round. He was too weak to defend himself and opened himself to easy blows from Tamara in the last two rounds.
Sports analyst Ronnie Nathanielz told radio dzMM that Viloria must have been drained from his fight against Tamara.
“He was totally drained and I think that caused the problem for him,” Nathanielz said.
Meanwhile, two Filipinos -- Donnie "Ahas" Nietes and Jimrex Jaca -- won their undercard fights.
Nietes won by TKO in the 10th round of his non-title bout against Jesus Silvestre of Mexico. He decked Silvestre with a right uppercut in the opening round but the Mexican showed toughness and lasted until the 10th round.
Jaca beat Ramadhan Weiru of Indonesia by KO in the 5th round.
