Nietes Dethrones WBO Champ Garcia Hirales In Philippines

Light flyweight Donnie Nietes lifted the WBO belt from reigning champion Ramon Garcia Hirales last night at University of Lasalle Coliseum in Bacolod City, Philippines after 12 tough rounds.

Mexican southpaw Hirales was making his first defense of the WBO belt after knocking out Jesus Geles in April while Nietes was engaging in his second bout at light fly after three defenses of the WBO minimumweight crown.

Hometown man Nietes started off the contest strongly, outworking the champion and using a probing jab to set up an effective long right hand.

Hirales patiently studied the challenger, keeping his offense in check early while focusing on countering opportunities.

In the fight’s second half, a tired Nietes had difficulty dealing with the suddenly more active champion’s offensive strategy as Hirales was firmly in control.

Nietes hurt at times as Hirales was successful with an inside attack that many times seemed to catch the challenger off guard.

Nietes had to fight thru a bad cut from a head clash in the 11th but managed to regroup behind a second wind over the last two rounds.

When the scores were read, Nietes was declared the winner by unanimous decision on scores of 118-110, 117-111 and 115-113.

Winning his second world title belt, Nietes improves to 29-1-3 (16) while Hirales falls to 16-3-1 (9).

The champion’s camp was upset at the loss but were particularly incensed at the wideness of two of the scorecards. A rematch is likely given the nature of the scoring.

There was a second Philippines vs. Mexico clash on the bill with local hammer-fisted bantamweight AJ Banal, 26-1-1 (19), retaining his WBO Asia Pacific belt by wide-margin UD against Mexican super bantam Mario Briones.

The vacant OPBF minimumweight title was won by Merlito Sabillo, 16-0 (8), who outslugged Rodel Tejares, 12-20-3 (3), to a points verdict.