By Kuvee Kangueehi ONGWEDIVA Namibia’s brightest boxing star, Paulus “The Hitman ” Moses continued to rise on Saturday when he defeated his challenger Fredric Gosset, a French national, at Ongwediva. The Pan-African and Inter-Continental WBA lightweight champion had one of his most comfortable wins in his career when he won the fight by a unanimous decision after ten rounds. The fight was never really in doubt from the first bell, as Moses looked sharp and fit and the two-time French Bantamweight champion ordinary. Moses had the upper hand in all ten rounds and even had the tough Gosset on his knee in the ninth. The Pan-African and Inter-Continental WBA lightweight champion started strongly in the first round, moving quickly and making his intensions clear from the first bell. Gosset started slower and hardly threw any punches on Moses and resorted to psychological warfare inviting Hitman to attack him. Moses grabbed the opportunity with both hands and had his fist raining down on Gosset like a hailstorm especially in the second round. The arrogant Frenchman, who was tipped as Hitman’s biggest challenge prior to the fight, did not intimidate Hitman. As the fight grew older Gosset, who really proved to be tough, started looking tired and could no longer absorb the punches from the Hitman. On the other hand, Hitman appeared to be gaining more confidence, thanks to the hundreds of supporters who had packed the Ongwediva Trade Fair Centre. In the fifth round Hitman had Gosset on the ropes, and his left and right punches almost took the wind out of Gosset, but the Frenchman stood his ground and came out of the tight situation with a cut on top of his left eye which continued to trouble him the entire night. The crowd – which included the Justice Minister and Attorney-General Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana; Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture Deputy Minister Pohamba Shifeta; Swapo MP Peya Mushelenga; Oshana Regional Governor Clemens Kashuupulwa; and former Minister of Sport Hidino Hishongwa – kept on shouting ‘Hitman, Hitman’ and the shouting was almost deafening towards the end of the fight. At the end of the tenth round there was definitely only a single outcome with Hitman getting his record 18 fights without defeat, while Gosset has a record of 40 fights (22 wins, 12 losses and 6 draws). In the undercard fights for Moses and Gosset, a number of Namibian boxers showed that there is a bright future for Namibia in terms of boxing. Pitted against South African boxers, the Namibians out-muscled their counterparts and Jason Naule was arguably the most impressive, defeating Peter Adams in the third round. Adams’ coach felt it was enough when his boxer could no longer take it and threw in the towel, giving Naule victory on a technical knockout. Naule showed once again that he is a very clever boxer and his defence and timing were almost faultless. Naule showed Adams – who challenged the Hitman last year – that “what the Hitman can do, I can do it three times better”. Daniel “Open Fire” Kashela hardly broke any sweat as he downed Andries Phetla of South Africa in the first round to win on a technical knockout, while Siegfried Kaperu and Vekapita Meroro defeated Tendani Munayi and Oupa Mahlangu on points, respectively. Former national champion in the amateur ranks, Joseph Bernard, seems to be finding the heat in the professional ranks too much to handle. He stepped into the ring on Saturday night for a rematch against fellow Namibian, Simon Negodhi.
2006-11-132024-04-23By Staff Reporter