MANILA, Philippines?If the current crop of Filipino world boxing champions were to play brothers in a movie, it would be quite easy to shove them into stereotypes.
There?s Manny Pacquiao, the charismatic brother who found success through sheer hard work. There?s Gerry Pe?alosa, the eldest brother, rich in wisdom and the movie?s moral center. There?s Nonito Donaire, everyone?s best friend, successful yet still looking for fulfillment.
And then there?s Donnie Nietes, the little brother, successful in his own right, great character, but still an afterthought when he sits beside his older siblings.
?I don?t mind that,? said Nietes, the reigning World Boxing Organization minimumweight titleholder, when asked whether or not he has been getting the attention and accolade that came with being a world champion.
?I know there?s a long way for me to go.?
Success has hardly changed Nietes, who looks up to Pacquiao so much that he has made the photo of him and the world?s top pound-for-pound boxer as the wallpaper on his cellular phone screen.
Nietes still prefers to travel by bus instead of a plane every time he goes home to Bacolod from his training base in Cebu.
He still cruises the streets of the city on his four-stroke motorcycle, a ?gift? he bought for himself after winning the vacant WBO minimumweight title over Pornsawan Kratingdaenggym of Thailand in September 2007 in Cebu.
Although he grew up exposed to the sport because uncles Gerson Nietes Sr. and Dan Nietes were making waves in the national boxing scene in the late 1980s, Nietes was unsure whether he would turn professional after high school.
He finished a two-year vocational course in electronics at the Carlos Hilado Memorial State College in Bacolod.
?I wanted to have an alternative after boxing,? Nietes, 26, said. ?I was exposed to boxing and I love boxing but it?s also important that I finished school.?
Shortly after graduation, Nietes tried his luck in Cebu, where he was employed by boxing patron Antonio Aldeguer as a utility and maintenance worker in the ALA boxing gym.
Nietes said he trained before and after working hours, hoping to catch the attention of Aldeguer.
When Aldeguer took a chance on him, Nietes didn?t disappoint. Donnie won 10 of his first 12 fights in a career that started in 2003.
Nietes, now toting a 24-1-3 record with 14 KOs, remained under the radar, though.
He knew he needed some sort of gimmick to increase his popularity.
That?s when he took ?Don? with him in his local fights. Don is Nietes? pet python, which he considers his lucky charm.
Campaigning in an unpopular weight class, Nietes, standing 5-foot-3, is hoping he could get the ?big fights? if he beats Mexican Manuel Vargas in his mandatory defense tentatively in June or July.
?I know I have to win more big fights,? said Nietes. And just maybe after winning those big fights, Nietes, the little brother, can rearrange the script of that movie.
