…the Rock redeemed
OMUTHIYA – Local professional boxers certainly lived up to their reputation as ‘world beaters’ by manufacturing a clean sweep at Saturday’s boxing bonanza under the theme “Redemption of the Rock” at the Omuthiya Park.
Not even the unusual chilly weather conditions that swept the northern village town and sporadic power outages that prolonged the event into the wee hours of Sunday morning could dampen the spirits of the thousands of boxing enthusiasts. As widely predicted, Paulus ‘The Rock’ Ambunda easily saw off Argentinean opponent Christian Palma on a unanimous points decision to become the new holder of the vacant unified International Boxing Federation (IBF)/World Boxing Association (WBA) Super Bantamweight belt.
Ambunda was in mean mood from the outset and took full control of the proceedings peppering his opponent with a combination of hard body punches and well calculated uppercuts and jabs.
Palma could only manage to win two of the 12 rounds with all three judges giving the Namibian the nod upon completion of the bout. In the main undercard bout, Namibia’s World Boxing Organization (WBO) Welterweight champion Betuel Tyson Ushona retained his belt in fine style with a 10th round stoppage against Ebenhaezer Lamptey. The nimble footed Ushona showed once again that he is doubtlessly one of the finest Welterweight boxers in the business pound for pound – taking just 1 minute and 40 seconds into the 10th round to end the contest via a Technical Knockout (TKO) in arguably the best bout of the evening. Vikapta “Beastmaster” Meroro returned the compliment to his compatriot in similar fashion dispatching his clearly out of sorts Tanzanian challenger Alphonce Mchumistumbo with a TKO in round eleven for a successful defence of his WBO Cruiserweight title. Onesmus Nekundi defeated Daniel Ausiku by a unanimous decision in their non-title Super Bantamweight four-rounder. Sakaria Lukas, aka Desert Storm enjoyed an easy payday – taking 1 minute and 37 seconds to sent Immanuel Andreki to slumber land with a vicious right hook in the opening round of their Featherweight bout to register his 8th stoppage outside the distance in 13 straight wins.
Andreki hit the canvass and failed to beat the count, leaving referee Ricky Tshabalala with no other option than to signal the end of the bout. In other action, former Commonwealth Games gold medalist Japhet Utoni knocked the lights out of Amagola Neaman with a 3rd round stoppage in their Flyweight six-rounder. Abner Mwafangeyo put up a great fight, but came out second best against the more experienced Johannes Baluka Simon. The latter won by a unanimous points decision. Jeremiah Nakathila defeated David Egumbo with an identical score card in the Junior Lightweight division, while Kapena Naidjala triumphed over Imms Mungandjela on a split decision in their closely contested Junior Welterweight non-title four-rounder.
By Carlos Kambaekwa