ALA Boy Donnie Nietes was not as menacing against his opponent as the crowd had expected when he climbed the ring with a 14-foot python hanging around his neck.
But still, the snake charmer from Bacolod City did enough to beat veteran Roberto Rubillar by scoring a shutout unanimous decision in the main event of the “Thrilla in Minglanilla.”
It looked like Nietes was going to end the fight early, connecting heavy combinations to the head of Rubillar that forced the Angeles City-based fighter to defend most of the time.
Tough fighter
However, Rubillar proved to be a tough fighter who could received heavy punches.
After 10 rounds, judges Jon Davis, Edwin Barrientos and Edward Ligas all scored 100-90 all in favor for Nietes, who is now concentrating on his next assignment – the International Boxing Federation minimum-weight title bout scheduled on Oct. 28 in Indonesia against Mohammad Rachman, the reigning world champion.
Not convinced
“We’ll he (Nietes) did just good enough to win. I was not convinced that he could win the world title with the way he fought, but nevertheless, we will try to go for that title,” ALA Boys manager Antonio L. Aldeguer told Sun.Star Cebu after the fight.
Aldeguer confirmed that negotiation with Nietes world title defense is currently underway.
It was an all-Nietes affair from start to finish, but Rubillar carefully protected himself from big shots that could have ended the fight abruptly.
Point deduction
The victory improved Nietes’ ring record to 18-1-3 win-lose-draw, with 10 knockout wins to his credit. Rubillar dropped to 12-13-1, 3KOs.
Rollen del Castillo, on the other hand, picked his 13th win and his sixth KO win against three loses, as he forced the wild-punching Nelson Guidolan to concede at the 1:28 mark of the third round.
Del Castillo was deducted a point in the first round for accidental head butt that opened a small cut above Guidolan’s right eye. The cut became Del Castillo’s target, and using his superior ring skills, tagged the raging Guidolan many times, using a combination of punches.
