GALLERY: Lerena marches on to next level

WITH a calculated and sterling performance, Kevin Lerena marched to the next level after he beat his challenger, Vasil Ducar, to retain his International Boxing Organisation (IBO) Cruiserweight title.

KO Kings Box and Dine were held on June 8 at Emperors Palace, hosted by Golden Gloves Promotions.

It was his fourth successful defence of his belt and Lerena will now look forward to his next opponent, which will most probably be in Hamburg, Germany, in the latter part of the year.

Golden Gloves promotor Rodney Berman confirmed speculation of who and where Lerena will fight next.

“If you look at what this guy has achieved, he had no amateur career. The sky’s the limit,” said Berman.

“I’m in negotiations for him to fight in Germany.”

With Aleksandr Usyk vacating his titles, Lerena is the only cruiserweight holding a title. Usyk will vacate his titles and move to heavyweight.

Trainer Peter Smith said that the camp is looking at unification of the cruiserweight belts as his fighter is now the only boxer left in this division who can try accomplish this. Murat Gassiev, the 27-year-old southpaw, will be very much in the mix.

Lerena is ranked in the top 10 by three of the big four sanctioning bodies and with Usyk vacating his titles, he will have a go at the vacated titles.

Lerena, 23-1, 10 KOs, took on the inexperienced Ducar, 7-1-1, 6, and totally dominated him. He outscored his Czech opponent by an unanimous points’ decision called by the judges, 120/108, 119/109 and 117/111.

But Ducar, who on the other hand had ample experience as a former MMA fighter, was a tough contender on the night for Lerena. He didn’t easily give up and the fight went the full 12 rounds.

“All credit to Vasil Ducar and his team. He’s a helluva tough competitor,” said Lerena.

“As you can hear, I’m pretty blocked up, but no excuses. This was a hurdle to get over and it’s onwards and upwards to the next one.”

“This man is going right to the top,” said Smith.

“Myself and Rodney (Berman) will sit down and will discuss what the future holds, but it will be overseas. We’re going to get all the belts.”

In the World Boxing Association (WBA) Pan African junior-middleweight contest, Jubalani Makhense, 8-0, 4 KOs, won with a unanimous decision from the judges against the southerner from Box Office, Michael Mokoena, 14-3, 9 KOs. Makhense also received an unanimous points’ decision from the judges with 119/109, 117/111 and 116/112, but didn’t have it all his way as Mokoena delivered a polished performance, quite a different reflection of what the score of the judges reflected.

The junior-middleweight bout between Boyd Allen, 4-0-1, 3 KOs, and Alexsandr Zhuravskiy, 13-5-1, 11 KOs, was a hard-fought contest. It was the first time Allen had an international opponent and both fighters gave it all to have a draw called for their efforts by the judges over eight rounds. The scorecards read 77/75 to Allen and two scores of 76/76.

Up-and-coming youngster from the south Ricardo Malajika had an easy day at the office as he dispersed of Arnel Lubisi in the first round of their junior-bantamweight contest over six rounds. Malajika, 4-0, 3 KOs, under the watchful eye of Anton Gilmore from Box Office, impressively stopped Arnel Lubisi, 3-1, 2 KOs, in the opening fight of the evening. He won by KO in the first round in 1.54 seconds.

The other results are:

Cruiserweight Keaton Gomes, 6-0, 4 KOs, won on a points’ decision over Amador Kolonji, 3-1 2 KOs, 58/56, 57/57, 58/56.

Aidan Quin, 2-0 2 KOs, stopped Pieter de Klerk, 1-2-1, 1, in the third round TKO 1:16.

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