In his first flyweight world title defense, Donnie Nietes staked his claim as the best boxer in the division with a knockout victory.
Nietes retained his IBF flyweight title by knocking out Juan Carlos Reveco in the opening bout of HBO's Superfly 2 television card. The champion dominated the fight from the start, controlling the fight by using the jab to set up strong right hands. The end seemed to be approaching when Nietes landed a series of punches at the end of the sixth round which left Reveco wobbly and nearly about to fall as he made his way to the corner.
Nietes knocked down Reveco in the seventh round and although Reveco got back up, he was mostly unresponsive to the referee's commands to move forward to the referee to continue the fight and Reveco's corner threw in the towel. By California rules, the final result was a knockout victory for Nietes.
The IBF champion already owns one of the best undefeated streaks in boxing, having never lost a fight since 2004. Nietes won the IBF title last year when he defeated Komgrich Nantapech by unanimous decision last April, making Nietes a three-weight world champion. With an emphatic win as a flyweight world champion, Nietes said after the fight that he might consider moving up in weight to fight either Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez or Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, who retained his WBC super flyweight title in the main event of the Superfly 2 card against Juan Francisco Estrada.
"I'm not sure if I'll stay at this weight or move up. I want the biggest fights possible. There was talk of me fighting 'Chocolatito'. I would love to fight 'Chocolatito' or the winner of the main event [Srisaket Sor Rungvisai]. I want to fight the biggest fights," Nietes said.
Reveco, a former flyweight and light flyweight world champion, was sent to the hospital as a precautionary measure due to how Reveco was knocked out in the fight.
