Referee Jhack Reiss raises the arms of both Donnie Nietes (left) and Aston Palicte after the split draw decision was announced in their 12 round bout for the WBO world super flyweight title yesterday at The Forum in Los Angeles, USA./PHILBOXING.COM
The camp of three-division world champion and the longest reigning Filipino boxing world champion Donnie “Ahas” Nietes cried foul in a fight that they believed Nietes won fair and square against fellow Filipino Aston “Mighty” Palicte which ended in a draw in the Super Fly 3 Fight Night yesterday at The Forum in Los Angeles, USA.
Both boxers lived up to expectations by giving an all-out performance but the more veteran Nietes came out with better placement of his punching combinations and defence which left a lot of boxing fans and experts questioning the split draw decision that denied him a fourth division world title which could have cemented his career as one of the Philippines’ all-time great in boxing.
Daniel Sandoval scored the fight 118-110 for Nietes while Robert Hoyle had it 116-112 for Palicte. The third judge, Max De Luca, scored it an even 114-114 which left the World Boxing Organization (WBO) super flyweight title still vacant.
Contrary to Luca and Hoyle’s score, HBO’s unofficial scorecard had it at 117-111 for Nietes while Compubox, the official statistician of the match, favoured Nietes after calculating that he landed 194 out of 523 total punches thrown while Palicte connected only 124 out of 830 punches. It came out that Nietes was 37 percent more efficient than Palicte’s 15 percent efficiency.
“Donnie clearly won a wide margin, but our hearts are broken right now because they denied Donnie his legacy,” said Nietes’ trainer and ALA Promotions International matchmaker Edito Villamor. “I think Donnie won nine out of the 12 rounds in that fight. Palicte’s punches did not penetrate Donnie’s defence and he always misses his shots. I think Daniel Sandoval’s score of 118-110, should be the right decision and the outcome of the total scores.”
Nietes’ manager, Michael Aldeguer, sent a text message to Cebu Daily News stating “Donnie won that fight clearly.” Asked if there will be an immediate rematch, he said “We don’t know yet as we need to take it up to WBO.”
The 36-year-old Nietes suffered his fifth draw with a record of 41 wins, one defeat and 23 knockouts while the 27-year-old Palicte absorbed his first draw with 24 wins, two defeats and 20 knockouts.
The more veteran Nietes used his savvy boxing skills to break down Palicte, who was desperate in the final round of their WBO world championship fight Saturday night shown on HBO.
Nietes, the pride of ALA Boxing Gym in Cebu, clearly landed the more significant punches and combinations and managed to control Palicte’s aggressiveness. The fight opened with less action as both fighters waited who between them will throw the first punch until the fifth round when Nietes connected several jabs that opened Palicte’s defence and landed a powerful hook that staggered the latter.
Palicte remained aggressive throughout the fight but Nietes’ lived up to his moniker and escaped every punch thrown at him. In the last three rounds, Palicte upped his tempo and threw more punches but Nietes defended himself well and was able to land counter punches.
The fight was a chess match from the beginning but instead, it drew some boos from the crowd who were dissatisfied of the boxers’ initial showing of their highly touted showdown.
The Nietes-Palicte fight took centre stage, three and a half months after the Jerwin Ancajas-Jonas Sultan historic fight, which was the first all-Filipino world title bout since 1925.
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