By Michael Angelo S. Murillo

FILIPINO WORLD BOXING champion Donnie “Ahas” Nietes caps off what has been a busy 2018 with another title fight on New Year’s Eve in Macau, China. It is a contest that carries much significance in further solidifying his standing as one of the sport’s best, a local boxing analyst said.

MANCHESTER, England (Dec. 22, 2018) — Michael "Mick" Conlan rolled into Manchester Arena for his fifth and final bout of 2018 intent on climbing up the world rankings. The Belfast native, two-time Irish Olympian, and one of the sport's top prospects graduated to contender status Saturday evening, defeating former two-division Commonwealth champion Jason Cunningham via 10-round unanimous decision to snag the vacant WBO Intercontinental featherweight title on the Josh Warrington-Carl Frampton undercard.

IBF welterweight champion Errol ‘The Truth’ Spence (24-0, 21 KOs) says he thinks he and Jermall Charlo (28-0, 21 KOs) will both knockout former middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (38-1-1, 34 KOs). Spence is still fighting at 147, but he could move up to 154 in a year or two after he exhausts all the fights available to him at welterweight.

Interim WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo (28-0, 21 KOs) looked unimpressive in beating 35-year-old 2008 Russian Olympian Matt Korobov (28-2, 14 KOs) by a controversial 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night on PBC on FOX at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The scores were out of whack from the fight that took place tonight.

Commentator/trainer Teddy Atlas agrees with the decision the judges handed down in giving Tony Harrison (28-2, 21 KOs) a 12 round unanimous decision win over rising star WBC junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo (31-0, 15 KOs) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Atlas is the first to admit that his comments on the outcome of the Charlo vs. Harrison fight won’t be favorable with the boxing public, as many of them thought Jermell deserved the victory.

Showtime commentator Paulie Malignaggi says he heard that WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder was unhappy with his commentary over his recent fight against Tyson Fury on December 1, which Paulie says was a match that he felt Tyson had won. Malignaggi thought Fury was robbed by not being given the decision on the night.

ESPN+ (1 p.m. ET)

• Josh Warrington 125.5 lbs vs. Carl Frampton 125.75 lbs
(Warrington's IBF Featherweight world title - 12 Rounds)

• Michael Conlan 125.75 lbs vs. Jason Cunningham 124.5 lbs
(Vacant WBO Intercontinental Featherweight title - 10 Rounds)

• Mark Heffron 158 lbs vs. Liam Williams 159.75 lbs
(Vacant British Middleweight title - 12 Rounds)

Lennox Lewis thinks WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury should face each other in an immediate rematch, since IBF/WBA/WBO champion Anthony Joshua doesn’t want any part of fighting them. Lewis says that Joshua is “happy being protected” in his fights inthe UK, and he doesn’t want to come over to the U.S to take a tough fight.