Donnie Nietes vs. Aston Palicte joins Superfly 3

Superfly 3 finally has its first fight less than two months from showtime. Rappler reports that the vacant WBO title fight between Donnie Nietes and Aston Palicte has moved from August 18th in Cebu City to September 8th in Los Angeles.

This is the first sign of life this card has shown since the rematch between Srisaket Sor Rungvisai and Juan Francisco Estrada fell through.

As the article mentions, Palicte (24-2, 20 KO) is nine years younger and four inches taller than the well-traveled Nietes (41-1-4, 23 KO), who has not tasted defeat in almost 14 years and will be making his super flyweight debut. Palicte is short on quality opposition, though, and Nietes showed no signs of decay in his walloping of former champion Juan Carlos Reveco this past February.

It’s a solid fight, but it’ll need some quality backup if it wants to compete with Showtime’s countermeasures. In a rather cruel twist, a solid super flyweight matchup between Andrew Moloney and Luis Concepcion is happening on the same day, but on an entirely different continent.

Happy hunting, HBO.