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Philippines, 12 Feb 2026 |
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De La Vega: Luis Nery "Beats" Arthur Villanueva at Tijuana By Ed de la Vega, DDS PhilBoxing.com Sun, 05 Nov 2017  Tonight before a near sell out crowd at the GasMart Stadium in Tijuana, Mexico, WBC bantamweight champion Luis ?Pantera? Nery ?beat? his challenger, Arthur ?King? Villanueva of the famed ALA Gym of Mandaue, Cebu by a 6th round TKO. His fellow residents of Tijuana - the infamous border town south of San Diego, California received the victory by Nery overwhelmingly. But in the opinion of many, it was a tainted victory achieved with the help of the referee. True to form, Villanueva dropped Nery in round 4 but from our observation that started the ball rolling towards his ultimate defeat. In our opinion, Villanueva from that point on appeared to have lesser chance to win the fight short of him scoring a KO as he was ?fighting? two people at the same time - his opponent Nery and the referee. Admittedly, Nery landed at least a couple of good shots on Villanueva early in round 6 and he backed up Villanueva to a corner. But, Villanueva was nowhere near being helpless and more importantly was not defenseless. However, that one single moment gave the referee the opportunity to take the matter in his own hands, and in our opinion, he stopped the fight way too early to assure that Nery wins the fight. The referee it seems was afraid that Villanueva will eventually stop Nery and he was not taking any chances. At the first instance that Nery lands a punch and Villanueva falters, he will stop the fight and give Nery the victory. And he did! According to a well-heeled boxing aficionado and a respected boxing writer it seems that the stoppage ?didn?t look very convincing?, meaning it could have been an early stoppage. Another one readily stated, ?It looks like one.? A former world champion and now a budding trainer indicated as well that the stoppage is ?questionable? because at the time of stoppage Villanueva was in full control of his senses and was still putting up a good defense. Villanueva?s defeat in Mexico against a hometown hero is not totally unexpected. It has been said that ?hometown decisions? are common in that country and foreign challengers short of scoring a knockout cannot really do anything about it. Now, if Team Nery really and truly believe in their hearts that they defeated Villanueva fair and square, this writer dare them to stake the WBC crown against the same Arthur Villanueva and hold the fight in the Philippines. They should not worry about hometown decisions because Filipinos love their boxing and generally will not settle for hometown decisions particularly involving foreign champions defending their titles in the Philippines. In fact they use non-Filipino judges and referees for title fights just to keep it fair and square. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.  |
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