Antonio Nieves: record, next fight and profile →
The man of many nicknames and one of the faces of female boxing will fight in co-feature bouts before Shakur Stevenson takes on Joet Gonzalez for the vacant WBO featherweight world title Saturday, October 26 at Reno-Sparks Convention Center.
Former world junior bantamweight title challenger Antonio Nieves returns to action tonight. Nieves will square off against Christian Esquivel in an eight round stay-busy bout at the Hollywood Casino in Columbus, Ohio. Nieves (17-2-2, 9 knockouts) has not fought since losing by knockout to three-division world titleholder Naoya Inoue on Sept. 9. Nieves lost a close split decision to Nikolai Potapov six months before the Inoue fight.
Plenty of boxing fans saw the demise of Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez live on HBO. According to ratings released by Nielsen Media Research, a peak audience of 835,000 viewers were watching when Srisaket Sor Rungvisai knocked out Gonzalez in the fourth round of their super flyweight championship rematch Saturday night. The Sor Rungvisai-Gonzalez rematch, the main event of HBO’s “Boxing After Dark” tripleheader from Carson, California, drew an average audience of 796,000.
Naoya Inoue annihilated Antonio Nieves on Saturday night, but “The Monster” didn’t impress his harshest critic. Inoue expressed disappointment about the way he performed during a six-round destruction of Nieves at StubHub Center in Carson, California. The unbeaten Japanese boxer picked apart Nieves for six rounds, until Nieves’ trainer, Joe Delguyd, told referee Lou Moret to stop the fight.
StubHub Center, Carson, California - Naoya "The Monster" Inoue (14-0, 12 KOs) made his American debut with a sixth round stoppage of Antonio Nieves (17-2-2, 9 KOs) to retain the WBO super flyweight title.
Inoue's plus-13.2 plus-minus rating places him sixth among the CompuBox Categorical leaders, as does his 71.6 punches per round. His 24.9 total connects per round is fifth best among world-class fighters tracked by CompuBox but where he really excels is his jabbing. His 37.1 attempts per round in number one in the Categorical leaders while his 9.6 connects per round trails only Gennady Golovkin's 10.6. Nieves can match Inoue in activity, but not in accuracy & power.
Antonio Nieves is caught between a rock and a hard place. Nieves has earned the right to become a contender and fight for a WBO world title belt, but all the attention has been focused on his opponent and the U.S. debut of Naoya Inoue. It is almost like Nieves is an afterthought with the way a majority of boxing scribes and fans favor Inoue to win.
WBO super flyweight belt-holder Naoyo Inoue comes in with a fearsome reputation as he makes his American debut on Saturday night against Antonio Nieves on HBO. Inoue is undefeated and the prohibitive favorite but Nieves and his side are undaunted, regardless. Their belief is that the first step in beating a vaunted fighter is to not be defeated mentally coming into the ring.
Estrada Cuadras Photos Weights Gallery - Saturday’s HBO Boxing After Dark® tripleheader telecast begins at 10:15 p.m. ET/PT. Photos by Tom Hogan/Hogan Photos. Opening up the telecast from Carson, California a 12-round super flyweight attraction between Carlos Cuadras and Juan Francisco Estrada. The co-main event is a 12-round super flyweight title bout featuring Naoya Inoue defending his title against Antonio Nieves.
Chocolatito vs. Sor Rungviai Weigh-In Live Stream - HBO BOXING AFTER DARK presents a must-see tripleheader featuring the four top-ranked super flyweights in the world when HBO BOXING AFTER DARK: SRISAKET SOR RUNGVISAI VS. ROMAN “CHOCOLATITO” GONZALEZ AND NAOYA INOUE VS. ANTONIO NIEVES AND CARLOS CUADRAS VS. JUAN FRANCISCO ESTRADA is seen SATURDAY, SEPT. 9 at 10:15 p.m. (ET/PT) from StubHub Center in Carson, Cal. The HBO Sports team will call all the action, which will be available in HDTV, closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired and presented in Spanish on HBO Latino.