HEIGHT and reach are advantages for any boxer. But for Donnie Nietes, who is coming in tonight as the smaller fighter, the height and reach disparity would be to his benefit.
?He was just as tall as (Felipe) Salguero. His height would be to my advantage because I can sneak in my uppercut on taller opponents,? Nietes said yesterday after the weigh-in at SM City Cebu.
Nietes is defending his World Boxing Organization (WBO) light flyweight belt against WBO mini-flyweight titleholder Moises Fuentes tonight in the main event of ?Pinoy Pride XVIII ? World Champion vs. World Champion? at the Waterfront Hotel and Casino.
Nietes, at 5?3?, is four and a half inches shorter than Fuentes and is also giving away a sizable reach advantage to the 26-year-old Mexican.
?His height would be an advantage if he knows how to use it. But we have already studied him and prepared for him in the gym so it won?t matter,? Nietes? trainer Edmund Villamor said.
Both world champions have vowed to knock each other out but if there would be a knockout, then Villamor believes that it would come from the 30-year-old Nietes.
?This would be a great fight. A knockout will come if Donnie times it perfectly,? he said.
Nietes, the second longest reigning Filipino world champion, is 31-1-3 with 17 knockouts, while Fuentes is 26-1 with 20 knockouts.
Although Fuentes looked calm and composed throughout his stay in Cebu City, Mexican ring legend Marco Antonio Barrera admits that it may be one of the most difficult fights of his young ward.
