OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 8.00pm.
SIX kilogrammes stood between Dingaan “The Rose of Soweto” Thobela and the IBO world welterweight title on Saturday night.
Although he stopped Adrian Daneff with a seventh round technical knockout, he did not win the title that was up for grabs, purely because he could not make the weight.
This left the farcical situation of Daneff fighting for the welterweight world title against a super middleweight. For Thobela, the fight had no special import due to the weight problem.
Daneff, who was in excellent shape, absorbed tremendous punches from a man who outweighed him by 10kg. He kept moving forward pushing the bigger Thobela back against the ropes on many occasions.
Thobela, looking fitter, faster and a lot sharper than he has for a long time, was just too strong for the brave Argentinean, and wore him down after seven rounds.
After the fight Thobela apologised for not making the weight and promised his disappointed fans that he will now be fighting as a junior middleweight and if given the opportunity would win the I.B.O junior middleweight world title for them.