…storm in tea cup, not hurricane
WINDHOEK – Namibia’s former two-time world champion Harry ‘The Hurricane’ Simon, can consider himself a lucky man after he narrowly escaped his first career defeat by the skin of his teeth.
Simon unconvincingly waltzed past Serbian opponent Geard Ajetovic via an unanimous decision victory to claim the International Boxing Federation (IBF) International Light Heavyweight title, at the defunct Ramatex textile factory in Windhoek on Saturday. A far cry from his usual bravado, Simon was a pale shadow of his former self, struggling against the highly motivated Ajetovic, though the judges’ scorecards did not significantlty reflect that as they scored the bout 116-113, 117-111, 117-111 in favour of the outclassed Simon.
Despite the fact that many expected Simon to make short work of the Serb, the rechristed Simon aka ‘The Hurricane’ failed to deliver the promised knockout to his ardent fans when he put on one of his poorest displays in the ring since entering the professional ranks in the early 90’s. Simon fought in an uncharted style, covering much of the time behind a shaky block that gave him no room to unleash his customary dynamite punches and deadly hooks. Ajetovic, who landed a good number of head and body shots had his more fancied opponent on the ropes for the better part of the contest notably in the opening round. He outclassed Simon in almost every department and never appeared in any danger of being floored – managing to deliver a few decent punches, while connecting well with fast jabs and uppercuts but somehow lacked that killer instinct to put the contest to bed.
Simon, was the unwilling recipient of much punishment as a result of his inability to keep his opponent at arms length and did not demonstrate his usual aggressive style managing only to land the sporadic odd punch that did very little harm, if any, to the jolly fellow Ajetovic, who kept Simon on the back foot with his intimidating style, much to the delight of the fans in the spacious and packed to the rafters Ramatex Hall. Simon is unbeaten after 29 fights with 21 of those bouts failing to go the full distance, while his victim now lost 9 out of 33 bouts, including Saturday’s defeat.
By Otniel Hembapu