Featured Video

🚨 Knicks Up 3-0 vs. Cavs

HAVANA, CUBA - MAY 09: Jaime Poradius, 16-years-old, takes off his boxing gloves after a training session at the Salvador Allende Sports Complex on May 9, 2015 in Alamar, Cuba. Alamar is a suburb of Havana. The town, which is about 30 minutes east of Havana, was built in the 1970Õs when the city center to supply much need housing to the people of Cuba. The gym where kids work out here is run by a coach Lazaro Goyalo Perez Quintana. The gym is not much of a gym, but rather a small room under a now-empty Olympic size swimming pool. The room has one light, one punching bag, and a couple of bags filled with sand pinned up against the wall for the boxers to train with. Although baseball is known as the national sport of Cuba, boxing in the sport where they have achieved the greatest dominance at the Olympic Games. Since the 1968 Games, Cuba has won a total of 53 medals, and 33 of those have been gold medals Ñ no other country is even close to those numbers. Boxing starts as early as eight-years old for boys inEzra Shaw/Getty Images

Donnie Nietes vs. Francisco Rodriguez: Winner, Scorecard and Reaction

Brian MaziqueJul 11, 2015

Where is Donnie Nietes (36-1-4, 21 KOs) on your pound-for-pound list? That's a legitimate question.

The WBO light flyweight champion dominated Francisco "Chihuas" Rodriguez (17-3) over 12 rounds on Saturday at the Waterfront Hotel in Cebu City, Philippines, en route to a lopsided unanimous-decision victory.

RagingBabe.com has the official scorecard:

TOP NEWS

Oleksandr Usyk v Rico Verhoeven: Glory in Giza - Fight Night

Nietes clearly had Rodriguez outclassed from the beginning of the fight up to a dominating 12th round that nearly saw referee Russell Mora stop the bout. Rodriguez pushed through to survive, but the 22-year-old Mexican was no match for the 33-year-old champion fighting in front of his countrymen.

Rodriguez was no slouch. Coming into the fight, BoxRec.com had him listed as the No. 4 light flyweight fighter in the world. To make Nietes' performance even more impressive, trainer Edmund Villamor says the champion broke his hand midway through the bout, per Ryan Songalia of Ring magazine:

Beating one of the elite fighters in his weight class—while fighting one-handed for half the fight—proves how superior Nietes can be in the ring.

The win was Nietes' eighth successful title defense. This latest victory had Ed de la Vega of Philboxing.com and Bob Guerrero of ABS-CBN calling for Nietes to get more exposure:

Nietes is clearly a victim of the lack of attention the boxing community pays to the lower weight classes. Despite Nietes' successful career, he continues to win and defend his title in relative obscurity outside of the Philippines. Even a matchup with the aforementioned Juan Estrada wouldn't really move the needle outside of Nietes' home country.

A fight with WBC champion Pedro Guevara would be a great fight for Nietes to take next. It won't be a bout worthy of pay-per-view exposure, but it would be a scrap that pits Nietes against the only other 108-pounder in the world on his level.

As it stands, Nietes will likely continue to be a national treasure and a fighter only the hardcore boxing fan knows about and appreciates.

Follow Brian Mazique on Twitter