A cut and a swelling above Jeremiah Nakathila’s left eye forced the referee to stop the fight at the beginning of the fifth round in favour of American southpaw Abdullah Mason on Saturday night, June 7, at the Scope Arena in Norfolk, Virginia.
The Namibian star boxer held his own from the beginning of the scheduled 10-round lightweight main card.
“I was having him in the first three rounds, he got scared of my powerful right punch, he couldn’t see it coming,” Nakathila told boxersworld.co.ke in an interview from his hotel in Virginia.
“It was not a tough fight as such until round four when I got a cut on my left eye.
“I really don’t know what brought the cut but I must say Mason is a good boxer, young and strong, he has a bright future.”
The fight did not live up to expectations as the home boy boxed with a lot of caution to avoid what happened in his fight against Dominican Yohan Vasquez who decked him twice in the first round.
It was not until the fourth round when Mason let loose the bees stinging Nakathila repeatedly with a two-fisted barrage but the tough Namibian policeman responded with several bombs that saw Mason abandon his plans of ending the fight on a KO.
“I’m happy I was not KO’d, I showed him I’m a real warrior from Africa. I’ll go back home take a rest waiting for my next fight,” said Nakathila, owner of the popular hanging joint in Windhoek known as Low-Key Pub.
Nakathila now drops to 26-5, 21 KOs and Mason maintained his unbeaten record to 19-0 with 17 KOs.
