AFP PHOTOS
Donnie Nietes needed only three fights as a flyweight to convince himself that he’s primed to fight at the 115-pound division.
Nietes, the current IBF flyweight world champion, so far, has dominated his three opponents at flyweight with a pair of lopsided wins over Edgar Sosa of Mexico and Komgrich Nantapech of Thailand and a stoppage of Juan Carlos Reveco of Argentina just last month.
“I’m really decided to go up in weight,” said Nietes in Filipino during his victory press conference on Wednesday. “I have no [hesitations], I’m really going to move up to 115.”
Opting to fight in a bigger weight class doesn’t seem to be a hard decision to make for Nietes, who has built a reputation as fighter who never backs down from any challenge.
“Actually, I really want to fight at 115 because that’s where the big names and great boxers are. That’s where my dream fights are,” Nietes stressed.
The 35-year-old Nietes has the likes of Juan Estrada of Mexico, former pound-for-pound king Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez of Nicaragua and WBC super flyweight champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai of Thailand in his wish list.
“He wants the biggest fights out there,” said ALA promotions chief Mike Aldeguer, who has handled Nietes since day one. “He’s waited for so long.”
Aldeguer even recalled his old conversation with Nietes, who had just climbed to the flyweight class then.
“I remember before, the reason why he moved up to 112, I think a lot of you noticed, is because ‘Chocolatito’ and Estrada are at 112,” Aldeguer said.
“But right after he moved up to 112, they moved up to 115 so I saw his face, I remember he came to me and said ‘sir, wala na pala si Chocolatito they moved up already’ and I told him it’s okay and I saw his patience and that’s Donnie for you. He just works hard and he wants to get the title and then, now this was a big break for him.”
Nietes’ move to super flyweight division, however, remains a topic for discussion by his team, which includes Aldeguer, trainer Edito Villamor and conditioning coach Nick Curson.
Aldeguer said a decision will be made “in the coming weeks.”
“Our conditioning coach will be flying in. Some discussions have to be made, but the good thing about this is this has been discussed long before when Donnie fought for the 112,” he said. “There had been discussions whether he’ll vacate and move up to 115 so there have been discussions for a year now.”