WINDHOEK – Having recently moved up a notch in his weight class, from bantamweight to super bantamweight, Paulus ‘The Rock’ Ambunda is a man faced with new daunting challenges and a long list of success-starved opponents, but the hard-punching stocky boxer is unfazed and says he boasts enough armory to take peak position in the super bantamweight food chain.
The Namibian former World Boxing Organization (WBO) bantamweight world champion will for the first time in his career fight in the super bantamweight division when he confronts Cristian Palma from Chile on May 17 at the Omuthiya Park in Omuthiya.
As it currently stands, the International Boxing Federation (IBF), World Boxing Association (WBA) and World Boxing Organization (WBO) International titles are all vacant as most of their former holders moved up to fight for world titles and therefore Ambunda’s fight against Palma will be a unification bout of all three titles on the same night.
A possible victory for Ambunda will mean he becomes the WBO, WBA and IBF International Super Bantamweight champion, a scenario that puts him firmly in touching distance of world titles in all three organizations.
Meanwhile, things are also looking very bright for Tyson Ushona, who is currently rated number one by the WBO and is the mandatory challenger for Manny Pacquiao’s WBO welterweight title.
But before Ushona embarks on a journey of conquering the world by hopefully taking a shot at the elusive world welterweight title, he first has to negotiate his way past Patrick Allotey from Ghana when he defends his WBO Africa welterweight title against the Ghanaian.
Also in action on that same evening will be Vikapita ‘Beastmaster’ Meroro, who is currently rated number two in the world by the WBO and currently holds a record of 29 fights, 25 wins and 4 losses.
The bulky Meroro is set to defend his WBO Africa cruiserweight title against Alphonce Mchumistumbo from Tanzania with a record of 17 fights, 14 wins, 2 losses and 1 draw. Meroro has to beat the Tanzanian if he wants to boost his chances of fighting for the world title as he currently stands in a favourable position.
“We will of course have a number of attractive undercard fights before the three main fights of the evening. After the fight we will entertain the crowd with live music performances by prominent artists such as The Dogg and Gazza, amongst others,” said promoter Nestor Tobias.
Tickets are available at all Computicket outlets countrywide. VIP tickets will go for N$500 while standard tickets will cost N$50.
By Otniel Hembapu