BRILLIANT SHOW BY AFRICAN BOXERS DESPITE LOSING
Thabiso Mchunu’s trainer Sean Smith says he returns to South Africa with his head held high.
The four African boxers may have lost their fights in IBA Champions’ Night card in Moscow but they displayed spirited and gutsy performance that won them several admirers at Moscow’s International Boxing Center in the seven-bout card on Friday, January 31.
However, the abrupt decision by Nigerian flyweight Ayisat Oriyomi to discontinue with her scheduled eight-round bout against Kazakhstan’s Angelina Lukas left fans puzzled with unanswered questions.
The Nigerian boxer held her own, scoring mostly with straight punches and guarding herself well against Lukas’ barrage of punches but surprisingly she did not answer the bell for the fourth round.
The commentator on IBA’s Livestream said the seconders put a stop to the fight while some media outlets in Nigeria said Oriyomi refused to fight on.
Efforts to get a comment from Oriyomi and her manager were unsuccessful. They didn’t respond to questions I sent them on WhatsApp. It was Oriyomis first defeat in her nine-bout unbeaten run.
The other three African boxers to lose were South Africa’s cruiserweight champion Thabiso Mchunu, Cameroon’s Mouhamed Oumarou and DR Congo-born Belgian Jack Mulowayi.
Mchunu lost unanimously to Russia’s two-time world champion, Olympic silver medallist and WBC bridgerweight champion Muslim Gazdhimagomedov, Oumarou was beaten on points by Russia’s Tamerlan Ozdoev in a six-round light-welterweight bout which could have gone either way while the towering Mulowayi lost on majority points decision to Russia’s Artem Suslenkov in a 10-round IBF Europe title fight. The judges scored 96-94, 95-95 and 97-93.
As the referee held their hands waiting for the announcement of the winner, a confident Mulowayi, seemingly satisfied with his performance, lifted his left fist anticipating victory but it was the Russian boxer who carried the day.
Enjoying reach advantage, Mulowayi kept Suslenko at bay with his left jab and explosive combinations upstairs. After the first round, Suslenko’s right side of the face below his eye had a bruise. The shorter Russian concentrated mostly on body blows and whenever he went close to Mulowayi he somewhat volunteered to take several face punches to rock his opponents’ body fighting from the inside.
Mchunu stood his ground against Gadzhimagomedov who used his long reach effectively against his shorter southpaw opponent whose main undoing was failure to find the range that most of his punches did not hit the target.
While admitting Mchunu’s third consecutive defeat had put a dent in his career, trainer Sean Smith was impressed with his boxer’s resilience and ring dexterity.
“I think besides the result we can take a lot of positives, Muslim couldn’t execute his gameplan on Thabiso and I’m sure he also felt frustrated,” Smith told boxersworld.co.ke.
“We took the fight on five weeks’ notice . No excuses but it’s difficult to find those elite performances coming from inactivity and short camps. He does not live in my city so it’s difficult for us to stay ready all the time
“Positively we saw he’s still able to compete at this level. We.comeback fights back home. Get some wins then I wouldn’t mind us fighting Lenar Perez on the IBA platform.”
Photos courtesy of IBA
