EMMANUEL B. VILLARUEL • ASST. EDITOR: LEMUEL P. MAGLINTE Nietes set to face Ioka for WBO super fly belt
PANAMA CITY — In a battle of three-division world champions, Donnie 'Ahas' Nietes of Cebu's fabled ALA Gym will face Kazuto Ioka of Japan on December 31 in Macau for the vacant WBO super flyweight title.
The proposed fight has been unanimously approved here today (yesterday) by the WBO executive committee during the Ratings discussion on the third and final day of the ongoing 31st WBO Annual Convention at the iconic El Panama Hotel.
"In principle, the fight is a done deal. We just have to sign contracts to seal it," said ALA Promotions President and CEO Michael Aldeguer, the promoter of Nietes.
The 36-year-old Nietes, WBO's No.1 super flyweight contender, fought the second-ranked Aston Palicte to a controversial draw last September 8 at The Forum in Inglewood, California on the 'Superfly 3' card with many saw Nietes winning the third allFilipino world championship bout in history.
Ioka, 29, ranked No. 3 by the WBO, also fought on the same card and dominated two-time world title challenger McWilliams Arroyo of Puerto Rico to win by unanimous decision.
Ioka's matchmaker Joe Koizumi, who said he has already an agreement with Aldeguer for the Nietes-Ioka fight, requested the Ratings Committee to approve the fight to the objection of Guy Taylor of Roy Jones Promotions, the promoter of Palicte. Taylor wanted Palicte to have an immediate rematch with Nietes.
The Committee, however, voted to approve the Nietes-Ioka fight considering that there is no negotiations going on for the NietesPalicte rematch.
WBO president Francisco 'Paco' Valcarcel who said he saw the NietesPalicte decision as 'highly controversial', told Taylor to pick a fight for Palicte among the top 15 ranked contenders with the winner going to face the winner of the Nietes-Ioka next.
The Nietes-Ioka world championship fight is expected to be a highlyanticipated and mouthwatering matchup, with the winner joining a select group of elite fighters to win world title belts in four divisions.
The fighting pride of Murcia, Negros Occidental who holds a 41-1-5 recrd spiked with 23KOs first won his world title against Pornsawan Porpramook of Thailand on September 30, 2007 in Cebu for the WBO minimumweight. He defended it four times before capturing the WBO world light flyweight title against Ramon Garcia Hirales of Mexico on October 8, 2011 in Bacolod City.
Nietes kept his WBO light flyweight belt nine times before giving it up in September, 2016 to move up in weight. Nietes went on to capture the IBF world flyweight title against Komgrich Nantapech of Thailand on April 29, 2017 in Cebu and defended it once against Carlos Reveco of Argentina on February 24, 2018 before again moving up in weight to face Palicte for the vacant WBO super flyweight title last September 8.
Nietes's only blot in his career was a split decision loss to Indonesian Angky Angkotta in 2004 at Angkotta's backyard in Jakarta.
Ioka (23-1, 13KOs), meanwhile, won his first world title on his sevent professional fight against Oleydong Sithsamerchai of Thailand on February 11, 2017 for the WBC minimumweight and defended three times the last one was a unification fight against WBA champion and compatriot Akira Yaegashi on June 20, 2012 in Osaka, Japan.
He then captured the WBA light flyweight title against Jose Alfredo Rodriguez of Mexico on Dec. 31, 2012 in Osaka and defended it four times. He went on to win the WBA world flyweight title against Juan Carlos Reveco of Argentina on April 22, 2016 also in his hometown Osaka and defended it three times before giving it up to campaign in the superfly division.
Ioka's only defeat was against former world champion Amnat Ruenroeng of Thailand on May 7, 2014. —