Nietes, Donaire, Pagara make clean sweep in Araneta

Lineal world light flyweight champion Donnie Nietes and newly-crowned NABF super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire both impressed the Filipino crowd by stopping their respective opponents last night at the SMART Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.

Nietes, the longest reigning world champion in Philippine boxing history, was able to overcome the tough and game Gilberto Parra of Mexico after some back and forth action in the early going.

Nietes' hard and accurate right straight would tell the story of the fight as he managed to open a cut on top of Parra's left eye as early as round 4.

Nietes then started digging the body from round 5 onwards, mixing up his punches on top and the middle section. The hard-hitting Parra never stopped throwing punches with bad intentions, backing the Filipino from time to time.

A well-timed right hand to the face in round 8 dropped Parra for the first time in the bout. Parra would beat the ten count, but only ran up until the round ended drawing boos from the crowd.

A series of hard right straights enlarged Parra's cut in round 9. International referee Jack Reiss stopped the contest upon the advise of the ringside physician before the start of round 10.

The win was Nietes' sixth successful defense of his WBO world light flyweight title, improving his record to 35-1-4 with 21 knockouts while Parra dropped to 19-3 with 17 knockouts.

In the co-main event, Nonito Donaire (34-3, 22KOs) made a successful comeback and won the vacant NABF super bantamweight title by making a quick work out of Brazilian William Prado (22-5-1, 15KOs).

After a feeling out round in the first, Donaire went to an all-out attack in the second round, quickly sending Prado to a shell and turning his face to a bloody mess. International referee Bruce Mctavish promptly stepped in and stopped the fight after a series of unanswered punches, earning Donaire a technical knockout victory at the 2:16 mark of round two.

In the undercard, Albert Pagara proved once more why he's one of the hottest prospects in the Philippines today by displaying superb technique and power against Rodolfo Hernandez of Mexico.

Pagara's promising talent were on display as early as round one when he dropped Hernandez with a sneaky right uppercut followed by a right straight.

Pagara was confident and never hurt throughout the fight despite Hernandez's remarkable punching power, underlined by the fact that the Mexican has stopped 24 opponents in his 26 victories.

Hernandez didn't come out of his corner for round 5 citing a right hand injury, giving Pagara a fourth round technical knockout win to successfully defend his IBF intercontinental super bantamweight title.

Pagara remained unbeaten as he improved his record to 23-0 with 16 knockouts while Hernandez fell to 26-6-1 with 24 knockouts. - Photo by KC Cruz/RAF, GMA News