Maqonda Ndlovu
Namibia’s former world title challenger, Jeremia Nakathila, suffered a second-round TKO defeat to undefeated Ernesto ‘Tito’ Mercado on Saturday night at the LumColor Phoenix Centre in Ontario, California. Mercado dropped Nakathila in the second round before following up with a bombardment of punches, which forced the referee to stop the fight.
The first round of the fight saw the two boxers start timidly, testing each other with jabs and body punches. Midway through the round, both fighters tested each other’s powers via some hard punches to the head.
Towards the end of the round, Mercado landed a powerful body punch, which seemed to rock Nakathila, but he continued until the end. The second round saw Mercado up the tempo, and that paid dividends as his first attack saw Nakathila suffer a knockdown.
The Namibian boxer was quick off the canvas, and that played into Mercado’s advantage as he sensed that Nakathila had not fully recovered from the knockdown.
He went on to a full attack, giving Nakathila no chance to defend himself, leaving the referee with no option but to stop the fight.
Nakathila seemed to protest the decision to no avail, as he registered his second consecutive loss in the United States of America this year. Nakathila now has a record of 23 fights, 19 wins, and four defeats. Mercado remains undefeated with a record of 13 wins, 12 of which have come via knockouts. Speaking to New Era Sport from the USA, Nakathila said he is proud of having fought at that level.
“This was the main bout of the evening. The results are part of the game. Unfortunately, tonight did not go my
way,” he said. He added that he will now dust himself up and continue working hard in the gym, as he has no plans of retiring at this stage of his career.
His promoter, Nestor Tobias, said he
was proud of Nakathila, even though the result was not what he wanted.
“I think after the knockdown, he should have clinched his opponent to slow down his momentum. When fighting away from home, you never give referees opportunities to stop the fight. Nakathila was not dizzy; he was caught by a flash punch. I believe he could have continued fighting,” Tobias added. He said they will have a debriefing meeting with the boxer when he gets back from the USA and plot the way forward.