By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Former two-time world title challenger Rodel Mayol predicts that reigning WBO minimum weight champion Donnie Nietes will win by a knockout in his title defense against Erik Ramirez in Oaxaca, Mexico on February 28.
Dong Secuya of Philboxing reported that Mayol made the prediction after sparring four rounds with Nietes at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym where former world heavyweight champion Michael Moorer and ALA Gym trainer Edmund Villamor supervised the champion’s workout.
Roach was busy training British lightweight Amir Khan for his battle with Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera at the MEN Arena in Manchester on March 14.
Mayol was reportedly impressed with Nietes who is in top condition. Mayol admitted he had a hard time sparring with Nietes adding “I felt his power punches.”
Mayol noted that since the title defense is in the challenger’s hometown ,Nietes needs to win by knockout in order not to leave the decision in the hands of the judges.
The 26 year old Nietes has a record of 23-1-1, 14 KO’s and is coming off a 2nd round KO over Eddy Castro last August 30. He won the title by a twelve round unanimous decision over Thailand’s Pornsawan Kratingdaenggym on September 30, 2007 after dropping the Thai in the fourth round.
Ramirez is 26 and has a fight record of 25-5-1 with 19 knockouts. In his last fight he won a ten round unanimous decision over Jose Ortiz in a clash for the vacant WBO Latino minimum weight title.
However, he lost by a 7th round TKO to fellow Mexican Lorenzo Trejo in a WBC title eliminator on July 13, 2007. Trejo himself suffered a bad beating at the hands of Mayol in another WBC minimum weight title eliminator in Cancun on January 28, 2006 where the fight was stopped in the fourth round.
