‘Ahas’ itching to strike

Three-division world champion Donnie 'Ahas' Nietes met Juan Carlos Reveco for the first time yesterday and the ALA Gym star minced no words in expressing his readiness to unleash his lethal weapon and strike hard against his Argentine challenger.

The 35-year-old Nietes (40-1-4, 22KOs) is set to defend his IBF flyweight title for the first time against Reveco (39-3, 19KOs) in the highly-anticipated 'Superfly 2' card that airs live on HBO this Saturday night (Sunday Phl time) at the Forum in Inglewood, California.

“I waited so long for this opportunity. Just watch the fight and see how the snake strikes,” said Nietes during the final press conference at the Westin Hotel in Los Angeles as reported by Ed de la Vega of philboxing.com.

The pride of Murcia, Negros Occidental had earlier said that he will just focus on the fight but he will not hesitate to go for a knockout if opportunity presents itself.

Reveco, on the other hand, relishes the chance of going up against one of the best boxers in the flyweight division and that he is out to overthrow the longest reigning Filipino world champion.

“I am happy to be here with the rest of the best in my division,” said Reveco in the same report by de la Vega. “The country (Philippines) has a great champion in Nietes until Saturday.”

The Nietes-Reveco duel will open the HBO telecast of the “Superfly 2” tripleheader headlined by Thai Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (43-4-1, 39KOs), who will put his WBC super flyweight crown on the line against former world champion and mandatory challenger Juan Francisco Estrada (36-2, 25KOs) of Mexico.

In the non-televised portion of the event, four-time world champion Brian ‘The Hawaiian Punch’ Viloria (38-5, 22KOs) will challenged the unbeaten No. 1 contender Artem Dalakian of Ukraine (150, 11KOs) for the vacant WBA flyweight crown.