MONDAY, 12.00 NOON:
ANDREW MATABOLA made another successful defence of his South African featherweight title, after a fifth-round technical knockout win over challenger Terrence Nkosi, to win the Old Buck championship belt at Nasrec outside Johannesburg on Sunday.
Nkosi didn’t put up much of a fight – he was knocked down twice in the fourth round, and a powerful left from Matabola early in the fifth minute left him lying on the floor too tired to get up.
Earlier in the weekend, former WBU bantamweight champion Lehlo Ledwaba held on to his national junior featherweight title with a fourth round technical knockout win over Lyanda Mini. Ledwaba used a series of quick punches to the body, punctuated with jabs to the head, leaving Mini without a chance. A victorius Ledwaba said, “I knew he would be no match for me.”
SOUTH AFRICAN boxer Francois Botha, who holds the WBA North American heavy-weight title, beat American Lee Gilbert hands down in a unanimous points decision in Tampa Bay, Florida on Saturday night.
TITLE hopeful Gary Ballard of South Africa suffered a fifth-round defeat at the hands of American Charles Brewer in the fight for the vacant IBF super middleweight title in Tampa Bay, Florida on Saturday night.