Donnie Nietes confident Manny Pacquiao can beat Adrien Broner

The longest-reigning Filipino champ believes Manny Pacquiao can take down Adrien Broner. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Donnie Nietes believes Manny Pacquiao’s win over Adrien Broner is already in the bag.

Pacquiao (60-7-2) is set to defend his WBA World welterweight title against Broner (33-3-1) on Sunday (Manila time) at MGM Grand in Las Vegas in a fight that Nietes believes his fellow Filipino titlist can easily win.

“I think if Manny won’t knock Broner down he can win via decision,” said Nietes (42-1-5) in Filipino via report from ABS-CBN.

“This will be a great fight because Broner is also a good fighter.”

Broner is looking to get his first win since February of 2017 after he lost to Mikey Garcia in July of the same year and drew with Jessie Vargas in April 2018.

Pacquiao, meanwhile, is on his first defense of the 147-lb title he won against Lucas Matthysse when he scored a technical knockout victory on July 15, 2018 in Kuala Lumpur.

Nietes is just a few days removed from his triumph against Kazuto Ioka to capture the vacant WBO World super flyweight title on New Year’s eve at Wynn Palace in Macau.