Truter beats van Niekerk in four-round bout
Brandon Thysse also retained his World Boxing Association (WBA) Pan African belt
The Hammer Gym’s Tristan Truter outpointed Ettiene van Niekerk in their middleweight clash at Emperors Palace on May 10.
Truter, under the tutelage of one Harold Volbrecht, took early control of the bout and, following the fast finish of the night’s opening fight, he looked to finish off van Niekerk as early as the first round with multiple combinations.
Van Niekerk, however, hung on.
Truter was again the aggressor in the early stages of round two of four, but van Niekerk remained resilient as he slowly got himself into the fight.
From the latter part of the second round, onlookers had a contest on their hands, but the Hammer Gym pugilist was always on top and the judges’ decision arrived as little surprise.
In the night’s main event, South African super-middleweight champion Rowan Campbell successfully defended his International Boxing Organisation (IBO) All-Africa super middleweight title for the first time after a 10-round unanimous decision over Yanga Phetani from the Western Cape.
The three officials scored it 98-93, 98-92 and 99-91, but the last score was not a true reflection of proceedings, with the 39-year-old challenger going out having given Campbell one helluva fight.
True his youth, the champion got out of the blocks faster before taking the first round. However, he received a rude awakening in the second as he found himself on the receiving end of a juicy right-hand blow, which shook his knees.
The well-conditioned champion returned stronger and took charge of the bout in its latter rounds as in his youth and gradually began to play in his favour.
Phetani’s sheer resilience and accurate shots to the head and body kept him the bout, but the result was pretty clear before the fat lady sung.
The defending champion improved his record to 10-0; 6 while the challenger’s dropped to 14-3-1; 4.
In the evening’s other title clash, Boyd Allen proved too savvy for a very good opponent in Brandon Thysse to retain his World Boxing Association (WBA) Pan African belt in what was easily the evening’s best bout.
Thysse came in the squared circle as the more experienced of the two pugilists, but was at times made to look like an amateur as he repeatedly struggled to catch Allen – much to the challenger’s frustration.
Allen (4-0; 3) was in control through most of the rounds and at times changed to southpaw, leaving Thysse (10-2-1; 9) wanting.
The challenger scared the champion with a desperate last round, but Allen hung on to hang on to his gold.
As with many fights, there was this one judge who scored the bout 119-113 in favour of the loser – much to the disapproval of those in attendance.
The other two judges scored it 115-113 for Allen.
In the night’s first fight, junior middleweight Aidin Quin was too good for Thulani Mdluli, winning via TKO early in the second round.
Roarke Knapp knocked out Wynand Mulder in the second round.
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