By ADRIAN STEWART CO
Negrense boxer Aston Palicte was unsuccessful in his boxing return after suffering a fourth round technical knockout defeat against Mexican Jose Salas Reyes at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas yesterday morning (Philippine time).
The Negros Occidental’s Bago City-native Palicte fought for the first time since a loss in Australia in June last year, but seemed out of shape and disinterested.
Palicte, a two-time world title challenger, was not literally punching against the extra aggressive Reyes, who was unloading punch after punch against his taller foe in the first three rounds of the bout.
Reyes went on with his aggression in the fourth round as he dropped Palicte with a solid hit before peppering him with more punches until referee Robert Hoyle stepped in to end the match at the 1:30 mark.
Palicte saw his boxing record drop to 28-6-1 win-loss-draw, including 23 victories by way of stoppages, while Reyes maintained his perfect 13-0-0 slate, with 10 knockout wins.
Meanwhile, Nonito Donaire, Jr. also fell short in his bid to capture the WBC bantamweight belt after a 115-113, 116-112, 116-112 unanimous decision loss to Mexican Alexandro Santiago.
Donaire, a former four-division world boxing champion, struggled to keep in step with Santiago in the first few rounds with the Mexican unloading volume punches directly to the face of the Fil-Am boxer.
Santiago suffered a cut midway in the match after an accidental headbutt, in which Donaire took advantage of his limited counter punches and allowed him to steal some rounds from the Mexican foe.
However, Santiago made sure to secure the world championship as he regained his form from the ninth round onwards before playing for safety in the 12th and final round to become a world champion.
With the defeat, the 40-year-old Donaire saw his record dropped to 42-8-0, including 28 victories by way of stoppages, while Santiago improved to 28-3-5 with 18 KO victories.
In undercard bouts, Filipino-American Justine Viloria scored a second round TKO win over Mexican Pedro Borgaro, while Fil-Am Demler Zamora scored a unanimous decision win over Nikoli Buzolin of the United States./ASC, WDJ