Donnie Nietes (42-1-5, 23 KOs) took a split decision over Kazuto Ioka (23-2, 13 KOs) to crown himself the WBO junior bantamweight champion on New Year’s Eve at the Wynn Place Kotai, Macao, China.

In victory Nietes becomes a four weight world champion, he stopped Ioka from replicating the feat which would have meant he would have become the first four weight world champion from Japan.

Ioka was the quicker of the two men throughout, using a snapping jab but it was Nietes who landed the harder counters. Ioka used an effective body attack in an obvious tactic to slow down the filipino for the latter rounds but Nietes was successful in staying in the pocket, using his jab to move into position to launch another attack, in the end it was adjudged to be enough to edge the scorecards by scores from Patricia Morse Jarman (US) 116-112, Levi Martinez (US) 118-110, both for Nietes, and Samuel Nieto Gonzalez (Panama) 116-112 for Ioka.