MANILA – Nonito Donaire Jr. fell short on his bid to become the oldest world bantamweight champion after a unanimous decision loss to Mexican Alexandro Santiago on Saturday night (Sunday morning in the Philippines) at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The much younger and shorter Santiago took home the vacant World Boxing Council (WBC) bantamweight belt after garnering 115-113, 116-112, 116-112 unanimous scores from the three judges.
Donaire, a former four-division world boxing champion, struggled to keep in step with Santiago in the first few rounds with the Mexican unloading volume punches directly to the face of the Fil-Am boxer.
Santiago suffered a cut midway in the match after an accidental headbutt, which Donaire took advantage with his limited counter punches and allowed him to steal some rounds from the Mexican foe.
Santiago, however, made sure to secure the world championship as he regained his form from nine round onwards before playing for safety in the 12th and final round to become a world champion.
With the defeat, the 40-year-old Donaire saw his record dropped to 42-8-0 win-loss-draw, including 28 victories by way of stoppages, while Santiago improved to 28-3-5 with 18 KO victories.
Meanwhile, Negrense boxer Aston Palicte suffered a fourth round technical knockout defeat against Mexican Jose Salas Reyes in his boxing return after almost a year of ring inactivity.
The Bago City, Negros Occidental-native Palicte seemed uninterested in the bout as he was not literally punching against the extra agressive Reyes, who was unloading punch after punch against his taller foe.
Reyes went on with his aggression in the fourth round as he dropped Palicte with a solid hit before peppering him with more punches until referee Robert Hoyle stepped in to end the match at the 1:30 mark.
The Negrense Palicte saw his record dropped to 28-6-1 win-loss-draw ring record, including 23 victories by way of stoppages, while Reyes maintained his perfect 13-0-0 win-loss-draw slate, with 10 knockout wins.
In undercard bouts, Filipino-American Justine Viloria scored a second round TKO win over Mexican Pedro Borgaro, while Fil-Am Demler Zamora scored a unanimous decision win over Nikoli Buzolin of United States./PN
