Angolan boxer Henrique Lando and his team are disappointed with the win awarded to his Namibian opponent Charles Shinima on Saturday.
The fight was a supporting bout of the Independence Boxing Bonanza, hosted by the MTC Nestor Sunshine Tobias Academy at the Windhoek Country Club and Casino, which provided a thrilling spectacle for the audience.
Lando and Shinima went toe to toe in their non-title international welterweight bout, with both boxers exchanging decent punches in the opening rounds.
However, Shinima gradually showed his dominance as he landed several body shots and some solid facial punches in the second round.
In the fifth round, Lando managed to land a powerful punch on Shinima’s face, causing him to fall to the ground.
Unfortunately, in the process, Shinima accidentally headbutted Lando, and the Namibian sustained an injury.
The fight was eventually stopped, and the scorecards showed that Shinima was leading on points, securing him the victory by TKO.
However, Lando was not happy with the decision, as he believed he should have won the match since he had knocked his opponent to the floor.
“I am disappointed with the referee’s decision. I won the match, and I was robbed of my victory. Overall, I am very dissatisfied,” Lando said.
His coach Goldblatt Bradley shared the same sentiment, expressing his disappointment with the referee’s decision to end the match after Shinima was taken down.
“We are going to contest the decision. I believe Lando was cheated. The referee couldn’t count the knock-out and decided to pull them apart giving him ample time to recover,” he said.
Approached for comment, Nestor Tobias, the event organiser, said it was an accident and that the referee made the right call by stopping the match.
“The referee followed the boxing rules, and they went on to the scorecard, which played in Charles’ favour. If they have complaints, they should just ask for a rematch,” Tobias said.
In the main bout, Paulinus Ndjolonimus impressed the crowd by stopping his Malawian opponent Saidi Dickson in the third round with a technical knockout, securing his victory in the international super middleweight category.
Other exciting bouts saw Paulus Amavila stopping Jonas Shikukutu in the junior lightweight category, and Nestor Thomas overpowering Lamek Fabian to win their bantamweight category.
Lineekela Nghifindaka surprised fans by defeating Martin Mukungu in the featherweight bout, and Silas Shanguandja punished Edward Mbango to win the featherweight category.