RUSTS and cobwebs from a two-year and four-month hiatus didn’t show at all as Donnie “Ahas” Nietes embarked on a comeback trail with a flourish, beating Colombian Pablo Carillo on Saturday (Sunday dawn in Manila) via unanimous decision at the Caesars Palace Bluewaters in Dubai.
The scorecards—99-91, 98-92, 96-95—all favored the former four-division champion who last fought in December 31, 2018, against Japanese World Boxing Organization (WBO) super flyweight champion Kazuto Ioka in Macau.
Nietes won that fight via split decision, went on a self-imposed hiatus after vacating the title in May 2019 to give compatriot and then No. 1 contender Aston Palicte a shot at the belt, before deciding to return to the ring in pandemic year 2020.
And he was well on course in his comeback.
“I am okay and I easily handled my opponent very well although I wasn’t in a hurry to finish him off,” Nietes told BusinessMirror hours after the fight. “He was durable so I just decided to finish the entire 10 rounds.”
Proving he has a lot left in his tank at 38, the pride of Murcia (Negros Occidental) landed the most punches against Carillo—97-81 body shots and 39-21 jabs—enough to secure him the WBO international super flyweight belt.
“He hurt me slightly with body shots, jabs, we engaged in a head-butted, and he tried to get me with a lucky punch. But I was careful in my attacks,” Nietes said.
Nietes displayed superior boxing IQ and flashed pinpoint counter-punching skills to neutralize Carrillo’s desperate long punches. The Filipino improved to 43-1-5 win-loss-draw (23 knockouts) while the Colombian dropped to 25-8-1 (16 knockouts).
With the convincing victory, Nietes stretched his goal to a world title rematch against Ioka within the year. He is also hoping to get a match with Srisaket Sur Rungvisai of Thailand or either Roman Gonzalez of Nicaragua or unified world champion Juan Francisco Estrada of Mexico.
If one of these fights pushes through, Nietes said he would reassess his future.
“I will wait for the decision of my promoter [MTK Global] on what to do next in my career,” he said.
The Dubai fight was held in a bubble—no fans—and was topped by Jamel Herring’s successful defense of the WBO super featherweight title via a sixth-round technical knockout win over Carl Frampton.
Nietes prides himself as the longest-reigning Filipino world champion at seven years and three months (2007 to 2014), holding the WBO minimumweight, light flyweight and super flyweight and International Boxing Federation flyweight belts during that span. He surpassed the seven years and two months record of the late great Gabriel “Flash” Elorde.
He will fly back to Cebu with trainer Edmund Villamor on Tuesday.