There was some anxious and edgy moment during the ESPN Africa Boxing 21 when Jackson Chauke successfully defended his South African flyweight title against Sinethemba Kotana in Johannesburg on Thursday night.
Going the full 12 rounds, the champion ultimately earned a unanimous points decision win, thus regaining his title for the fifth time.
The triumph puts Chauke’s professional fight record at 22 wins, one loss and two draws while Kotana stands at eight wins, two losses and two draws.
The fight was close from the opening bell with neither boxer dominating the early rounds. The champ, though, started to pick up the pace from round three and won the middle rounds thanks to his high work rate and combinations.
Kotana, however, did not take it lying down and bounced back with some devastating left hooks to the body to win rounds eight through nine.
The last three rounds are where the real championship quality started to shine through with Chauke continuously pushing forward and throwing more punches, which earned him the victory against his former sparring partner.
Speaking after the fight, Chauke admitted that it was a hard battle.
In the co-main event, Bangile Nyangani comfortably defended his South African mini-flyweight title with a unanimous points decision victory over Gaveni Nkwenteni in their 12-round bout.
The champion put on an impressive display, winning every single round because of his majestic movement and pin-point combinations.
The fight may have started a little slowly, but Nyangani quickly picked up the pace in the second round and it was all him from there on, scoring at will with a horde of different shots. Nkwenteni had no answer for his opponent and looked out of his depth as he suffered the fourth loss of his career.
The main card opened with a TKO win for Darrin Rossouw over Sheldon Schultz when the referee called off the fight at the start of the fifth round in the junior middleweight contest.
Rossouw simply had the better technique and picked his shots at will. Schultz showed true grit to battle his way to the end of the fourth round, but he couldn’t answer the fifth round due to the consistent punishment.
The second bout on the main card saw DRC’s Patrick Mukala with a dominant performance, earning a third-round TKO win over Malawi’s Simion Tchetha in their international super middleweight contest.
The man from the DRC looked extremely comfortable from the opening bell and used his jab and stinging straight right to put himself on the front foot. Tchetha simply had no answer for Mukala’s superior boxing skills, and the referee rightfully stopped the fight one minute and 55 seconds into round three.
The third bout on the main card saw a sad return to the ring for Rowen Campbell who suffered a unanimous decision loss to Luvuyo Sizani in their light heavyweight clash over eight rounds.
It was Campbell’s first outing in the squared ring for over 18 months. To his credit, though, the former South African light heavyweight champion started well by moving swiftly and landing some picturesque straight right-hands in the first three rounds.
The tide turned in the fourth when a devastating straight left from Sizani put Campbell on his bum midway through the round.
The latter answered the count and continued to grind it out, but he was on the canvas again in the seventh after another stunning left from Sizani. Again, Campbell got up, but the writing was on the wall as Sizani maintained his undefeated record with the seventh win of his career.
The first bout on the undercard saw Cayden Truter earn a fifth-round TKO win over Nkululeko Mdletshe in their junior lightweight contest.
Truter landed the more telling punches from the onset and continuously punished Mdletshe with his crisp strikes. In the fifth, Mdletshe’s corner had seen enough and threw in the towel two minutes and 50 seconds into the round.
The second bout on the undercard saw DRC’s Lence Ngoy earn a majority decision win over South African Ntethelelo Nkosi in their junior welterweight contest over six rounds.
It was an entertaining affair as both fighters stood toe-to-toe and slugged it out. In the end, Ngoy landed the cleaner punches to pick up the fourth win of his career.
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