AGAIN, Donnie ?Ahas? Nietes did not make a prediction.
Raul Garcia did.
?I will knock him out in five rounds,? Garcia said.
The opposite happened.
Nietes stopped Garcia. In five rounds.
The jampacked crowd at Bacolod?s La Salle Gym, irked by a dull first two rounds, yelled for blood and, in an instant, Nietes recoiled in the third round and started pummeling Garcia.
Nietes would wow his fans with body blasts in the main card presented by Tony and Michael Aldeguer?s ALA Productions and ABS-CBN Sports.
Nietes? swift combinations found Garcia?s breadbasket at will.
Midway into the round, Nietes floored Garcia with a right into the ribcage preceding a left hook to the face.
Garcia got up quick, only to be quickly decked again by Nietes? unending body blasts. The Mexican was saved by the bell.
Obviously embarrassed by the two knockdowns, Garcia went ballistic in the fourth in a bid to salvage pride.
But Nietes? thoroughly refined moves developed in a span of almost 15 years were just simply too much for Garcia to handle.
To his constant consternation, Garcia would repeatedly miss shots in the 12-rounder capping Pinoy Pride 36?s 8-card offering.
In the fifth, Nietes, his body bombardment incessantly connecting, reduced Garcia?s tummy into a virtual punching bag.
Wobbling back to his corner after the round, the badly-battered Garcia slumped in his chair?spent and wasted like a drug- dependent.
When the bell rang for the sixth round, Garcia surrendered. He was too weak to even stand up to say he would fight no more. TKO.
The enthralled throng that included May and Ramon Uy, Sahlee and Johnny Tan (happy birthday, Sahlee, on June 1) Dr. Ed Ordonez, and poet-book author Sol F. Juvida roared in approval.
?I really went for the body as I felt that was his weakness,? said to me in Tagalog by Nietes, mobbed no end by an adoring flock mostly coming from his nearby hometown of Murcia, Negros Occidental.
It was his 9th successful defense of his WBO world junior flyweight title.
Among Nietes? well-wishers were newly-elected Bacolod Mayor Bing Leonardia and Games and Amusements Board Chair Ramon ?Monju? Guanzon, himself a Bacolodnon.
?Nietes is our joy and pride,? said Leonardia. ?He is our contribution to world boxing.?
