FORMER world champion Donnie “Ahas” Nietes turned down an offer to fight fellow super flyweight Renz Rosia on December 18 in Cebu, saying “it’s not worth it.”
“I am not going to gain anything from them. It’s just them who will gain from me and at the same time I don’t like to face a fellow Filipino in a tune-up fight. The offer is also not good,” the 38-year-old Nietes told BusinessMirror on Wednesday, adding he will be fighting in February in Dubai under his new promotions MTK Global.
“It looks like they have a low regard for me. But I am okay with any tuneup fight as long as it is not against a fellow Filipino,” Nietes said. “After my February fight, they are also trying to arrange my long-time dream fight against Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez—that’s why I signed the [MTK Global] offer.”
The 32-year-old Rosia (16-9-1 win-loss-draw record with eight knockouts) is coming off a spectacular unanimous decision win over compatriot Aston Palicte, also a former world title challenger, last December 21 at the Manila Arena.
Nietes said he would just focus on honing his skills and condition for the February fight. He last fought was on December 31, 2018, winning the vacant World Boxing Organization (WBO) super flyweight belt against Kazuto Ioka in Macau making him a four-weight world division champion.
But Nietes (42-1-5 record with 23 knockouts) vacated the WBO belt in favor of Palicte.
Nietes regretted that decision after Palicte was badly beaten by the Japanese Ioka to win the WBO belt vacated by Nietes via a 10th-round technical knockout decision in Japan on June 19, 2019.
Asked if his lack of fight for almost two years would affect his performance and stamina, Nietes said being away from the ring for two years didn’t affect his performance.
“I don’t think so for as long as I am training and preparing very well,” he said.
Image credits: Jhay Oh Otamias