By Sean Jones: Former three division world champion Donnie Nietes (42-1-5, 23 KOs) defeated 29-year-old former three division world champion Kazuto Ioka (2-2, 13 KOs) by a 12 round split decision on Monday night to win the vacant World Boxing Organization super flyweight title at the Wynn Place Kotai, Macao, China. This is the WBO belt that was recently vacated by unbeaten talent Naoya ‘Monster’ Inoue last March.
Inoue moved up to bantamweight, and has since captured the WBA ‘regular’ 118 pound title. The WBO 115 lb title had been vacant for the last nine months since Inoue vacated the strap in March.
The scores for tonight’s Nietes vs. Ioka fight are as follows: 118-110, 116-112 for Nietes, and 116-112 for Ioka. Boxing News 24 scored it 118-110 for Nietes. He dominated the fight. The judge [Samuel Nieto] that scored it eight rounds to four in Ioka’s favor seems to be watching a much different fight than the one that took place tonight. The fight that this writer watched was one that controlled by the 36-year-old Filipino Nietes from start to finish. He was the much better fighter of the two, and had control over the contest from start to finish.
Ioka wasted a lot of time in the fight by focusing on defense instead of his offense. He seemed to be more preoccupied with getting out of the way of Nietes’ shots than he was in going after him with his offense, and this enabled the Filipino star to control vast portions of the fight by default. When a fighter is only putting their attention on their defense like Ioka was, they give away the rounds, and end up losing badly. That’s what happened tonight.
Ioka was moving too much, and not letting his hands go in the way that he needed to. Ioka fought like he was afraid of the more powerful Nietes. From one side, we saw Nietes taking the fight to Ioka, hitting him with power shots and beautiful combinations all night long. For his part, Ioka was more interested in throwing jabs, moving cleverly, and staying out of harm’s way as much as possible. One judge liked what he saw in Ioka tonight, but the other two clearly felt he didn’t do enough to win the fight over the older fighter Nietes, who fought like he wanted it a lot more.
This is a fight that Ioka likely wish he could do over. He’s got to know now that he fought the wrong fight, and should have been more aggressive from start to finish. It might have changed anything though. Nietes was getting the better of the exchanges when the two of them were at close quarters throwing power shots. Had Ioka decided to mix it up with Nietes, he might have been knocked out. Fighting defensively is perhaps the best that Ioka could do to see the final bell. Ioka knew his limitations, and fought the only way he could against a superior fighter in Nietes.
Hiroto Kyoguchi vs. Hekkie Budler – RESULTS
Undefeated Hiroto Kyoguchi (12-0, 9 Kos) defeated World Boxing Association Super World light flyweight champion Hekkie Budler (32-4, 10 Kos) by an 11th round knockout on the undercard of Donnie Nietes vs. Kazuto Ioka. Former IBF Minimumweight Champion Kyoguchi, 25, scored the stoppage in the 11th round when the South African Budler decided he’d had enough. Budler, 30, had nothing left by that point in the fight after absorbing a one-sided beating by Kyoguchi. Budler had been getting hit all night long with powerful left hands and hard shots to the midsection from the Japanese fighter. You’ve got to give Budler credit for being able to withstand a lot of the blows that he’d been getting hit with by Kyoguchi.
Budler was beaten last year by Milan Melindo by a 12 round split decision in September 2017. However, Budler bounced back from that loss to defeat Ryoichi Taguchi by a 12 round unanimous decision to win the IBF and WBA light flyweight titles. That fight showed how quickly a fighter’s fortunes can change in the 108 lb weight class. Tonight, Budler once again was beaten. We’ll now have to see whether Budler can come back from this loss to capture another world title or two. Things change quickly in the light flyweight division, and it’s hard for the champions at the stop for any length of time.
At the time of the stopped, Kyoguchi was ahead on the scorecards over Budler by the scores 98-92m 96-94 ad 97-93.
Morti Mthalane vs. Masahiro Sakamoto – RESULTS
IBF World flyweight champion Morti Mthalane (37-2, 25 KOs) defeated #14 IBF fringe contender Masahiro Sakamoto (13-2, 9 Kos) by a 10th round knockout in a voluntary defense of his IBF 112 lb title. The fight was halted at the end of the 10th round due to Sakamoto having a right eye injury. It was a one-sided fight with the 36-year-old Mthalane pummeling his over-matched Japanese opponent from start to finish. Even if the fight had been allowed to continue, Sakamoto wasn’t going to last too much longer. At the time of the stoppage, Mthalane was ahead on the three judges’ scorecards by the scores 100-90, 99-91 and 98-92.
The win for Mthalane was his defense of his IBF flyweight belt that he won last July in defeating Muhammad Waseem by a 12 round unanimous decision. Mthalane needs to fight better opposition than Sakamonto if he wants to impress boxing fans. There are some good fighters in the flyweight division that Mthalane can defense his IBF title against, such as Masayuki Kuroda, Andrew Selby, and Sarawut Thawornkham.