MANILA – Negrense Donnie Nietes was unsuccessful in his bid to reclaim the WBO world super flyweight title following a one-sided unanimous decision loss to Japanese Kazuto Ioka last night at the Ota-City General Gymnasium in Japan.
The Murcia, Negros Occidental native failed to evade father time in his rematch in Ioka to suffer his first defeat in 18 years via a 118-110, 120-118, 117-111 unanimous verdict.
Ioka showed his aggressiveness in the opening round with his distance hits but Nietes showed some accurate counter punching, particularly with the right hand over the jab, in the second frame.
Ioka made the match tactical in the succeeding rounds. He targeted Nietes’ body most of the time. The Negrense puncher opted to move more and punch less in the middle rounds.
Nietes, however, showed some life in the ninth round. He responded with a beautiful right uppercut that wobbled Ioka somehow.
The Filipino continued with his uppercut attempts in the 10th but not enough to hurt the Japanese.
Nietes, who suffered a huge cut above his left eye, tried his best to go for the finisher in the last two rounds but Ioka was wise enough not to give the Filipino the opening to retain his world title.
With the lopsided loss, the 40-year-old Nietes saw his boxing slate dropped to 43-2-6, including 23 stoppage wins, while Ioka improved his record to 29-2-0, including 15 KO wins.
This was the 33-year-old Ioka’s fifth successful title defense of the world championship that he won at the expense of Negrense boxer Aston Palicte on June, 2019 in Chiba City in Japan.
Filipino fighter Froilan Saludar (32-6-1, 22 KO wins), meanwhile, was also unsuccessful in the co-main event. He suffered a split decision loss to Japanese fighter Daigo Higa (18-2-1, 17 KOs).
Saludar managed to score a knockdown in the fourth round but Higa came back in the next rounds, particularly in the sixth and eighth round where he unloaded vital blows on the Filipino.
In the undercard, Filipino Presco Carcosia (10-2-1, 9 KOs) was beaten via unanimous decision by Japanese Musashi Mori (13-1, 7 KOs), while Pinoy Jhon Gemino (23-14-1, 13 KOs) bowed to debuting Hayato Tsutsumi./PN
