It certainly will not be a candidate for fight of the year. Isaac Hlatshwayo managed to retain his IBO lightweight title in a dull bout at Brakpan’s Carnival City on Saturday night.
The South African defeated Argentina’s Aldo Rios on points over 12 rounds.
That the judges felt that Rios did not do enough to take the title away from Hlatshwayo is comprehensible. That the judges found between six and eight points between the two boxers is ludicrous.
The fight was scored 118-110 and 117-111 by the two South African judges and 118-111 by the British judge.
For the first 10 rounds they could have counted the telling punches thrown by each boxer on the fingers of one hand. Every time Hlatshwayo moved in, Rios kept ducking away, but as a result the Argentine was never close enough to do much damage himself.
The problem was that Hlatshwayo had been suckered into playing Rios’s game, and by the end of the sixth round the South African’s corner was telling him to ”pick up the pace”. By the end of the 10th round, trainer Manny Fernandez was warning his boxer that the fight was close.
The 11th round finally breathed some life into the two fighters, both obviously realising it was time to stamp some sort of authority on the bout.
The South African was finally able to throw a few combinations and appeared to be in control. But a minute from the end of the 12th and final round, Rios caught Hlatshwayo with a flurry of punches and pushed the champion back on to the ropes.
Hlatshwayo appeared to be buckling under the pressure but Rios, who weighed in well under the limit at 60,73kg, could not find the killer punch. That could have proved costly as Hlatshwayo suddenly found a second wind and came back powerfully in the last 15 seconds to turn the tables on his challenger.
Hlatshwayo admitted later that he had trouble with the Rios style of boxing. ”He’s a good mover and I couldn’t land my jabs properly. In the end I was very tired, but I managed to come back.” — Sapa