Carlos Kambaekwa
Windhoek-It is back to the drawing board for Namibia’s dethroned continental Bantamweight champion Immanuel “Prince” Naidjala.
The somewhat overly ambitious boxer was stopped right in his tracks by a combination of heavy blows – obliging the referee to signal the end of the contest in round three.
Naidjala failed to negotiate his way past the undefeated Australian opponent Jason “The Smooth One” Moloney, when the two boxers squared off for the much-anticipated vacant WBA Commonwealth Bantamweight title at the St Kilda City stadium in Melbourne, Australia on Saturday evening.
With the prospect of forfeiting his WBA Oceana Bantamweight belt if he has lost to the Namibian – Moloney made short work of his fight against the out of sorts Naidjala, peppering the Namibian from the opening round.
The usually hard-punching Naidjala, boasts an astonishing record of 23 wins five defeats and one draw from 29 fights in the paid ranks with 13 of those bouts finishing inside the distance.
Quizzed to shed light on Naidjala’s below-par showing, his handler Nestor “Sunshine” Tobias declined to comment on the defeat, saying he did not accompany his protégé to the land of the “Kangaroos” as he had other pressing commitments.
“I’m not in the ideal position to comment because I’ve not watched the fight but from what I heard is that the referee prematurely stopped the fight while “Prince” was protecting himself on the ropes with his opponent aggressively on the offensive.
Going into Saturday’s fight, the skillful Oshikulu born Naidjala 33, has lost two of his last fights going down on points against Siboniso Gonya for the vacant Commonwealth Bantamweight title in April 2017.
He suffered the same feat against Mzuvukile Magwaca for the IBI Inter-Continental Bantamweight title in August, last year.