Nietes makes ring’s pound-for-pound list

CEBU, Philippines — Donnie 'Ahas' Nietes (41-1-4, 23KOs) is like fine wine. He gets better with age.

And at 36 years old, plaudits just keep on coming his way.

For the first time in his illustrious career, Nietes made it to the top 10 in The RING's fabled pound-for-pound list.

The fighting pride of Murcia, Negros Occidental is ranked No.9 by the prestigious magazine considered as the 'Bible of boxing". He's a notch higher than Ukraine's Oleksandr Usyk (14-0, 11KOs), the WBO and WBC cruiserweight champion.

"It's an amazing accomplishment - from a janitor, longest reigning Filipino world champ, 3-division world champ and now Ring Magazine Pound for Pound #9 in the world," said ALA Promotions President and CEO Michael P. Aldeguer in reverence to Nietes. "But most of all, the most humble and hard working fighter we ever had in ALA, that is why he is great."

In his epic boxing journey where he rose from his humble beginnings as a janitor at the ALA Gym into one of the best fighters of his generation, Nietes held the record as the longest reigning Filipino world boxing champion.

In that glorious reign, Nietes claimed three world titles in different weight divisions, becoming the only third Pinoy to accomplish the feat after Manny Pacquiao and Nonito Donaire, Jr.

Nietes stole the thunder in his first fight on HBO live telecast by knocking out Juan Carlos Reveco to retain his IBF flyweight belt last February 25 at The Forum in Inglewood, California.

Nietes, however, vacated his IBF throne to climb to super flyweight and lock up a possible megabout with former pound-for-pound king Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzales.

Meanwhile, WBA/WBC middleweight champion Genady Golovkin (38-0, 34KOs) of Kazakhstan topped RING's list of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world today.

WBA lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko (11-1, 9KOs) of Ukraine is at No.2 followed by WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford (33-0, 24KOs) of the United States, WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia (38-0, 30KOs) of the US, WBO junior bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue (16-0, 14KOs) of Japan, super flyweight champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (45-4-1, 4OKOs) of Thailand, IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence, Jr. (23-0, 20KOs) of the US, and light heavyeweight champion Sergey Kovalev (32-2-1, 28KOs) of Russia.