By Ronnie Nathanielsz

WORLD Boxing Organization minimumweight champion Donnie ?Ahas? Nietes bucked a couple of hometown shenanigans designed to favor Mexico?s Eric Ramirez in Oaxaca, Mexico, on Sunday to retain his title after dropping the challenger four times.

The sterling performance of Nietes, one of the finest boxers in the famed ALA gym, won praise for his performance from two other Filipino world champions?World Boxing Organization bantamweight champion Gerry Pe?alosa and International Boxing Federation/International Boxing Organization flyweight champion Nonito Donaire.

?It was a fine victory by Nietes and as a Filipino and a fellow boxer, I am even more proud. Filipinos are great,? said Pe?alosa.

Donaire, for his part, congratulated Nietes. ?The Pacman heart is running through the veins of all of us Filipino fighters because Manny Pacquiao has made us confident that wherever we go and fight, we are Filipinos and we are great fighters.?

World Boxing Council ring physician Dr. Allan Recto, who served in Nietes? corner, reported that there was a slight delay in the opening round, when Ramirez spat out his mouthpiece after being decked by the champion? which is a tactic used by some fighters to buy time so they could recover.

World-rated bantamweight AJ ?Bazooka? Banal, who was in the corner of Nietes, alerted trainer Edmund Villamor after he timed the round at 4 minutes and 30 seconds. In Round 2, Banal did the same thing and this time the round lasted 3 minutes and 23 seconds. Banal then notified the boxing commissioner after which the timing was correct.

Recto said that assistant trainer Jeremiah Quijano calmly told the team ?not to worry but to concentrate on the fight.?

The subsequent rounds were action-packed before Nietes, who got tagged a few times, came back and dropped Ramirez for the second time with a hard overhand right in Round 5.

Nietes dropped Ramirez for the third time in the fight with a patented overhand right in the ninth round, but the game challenger rallied once more. But the champion himself was caught by an overhand right early in the final round and his knees appeared to buckle a little, giving the Mexican fans some hope thinking the Filipino was in trouble.

But Recto reported that Nietes raised both arms and urged Ramirez to come forward and when he did nailed him with a right straight to the head sending him crashing to the canvas for the fourth time.

The referee waved his hands signaling the fight was over, but the commission claimed the bell had rung before the referee finished the count and the referee said later he didn?t hear the bell.

Unbelievably, judge John Stewart scored the fight by a mere two points for Nietes, 113-111, despite the four knockdowns. Thankfully, Victor Salomon and Cesar Ramos salvaged some respectability with their scorecards of 115-109 and 116-108 all in favor of the champion, Nietes.