Threesome reign supreme in boxing bout at Emperors
All out boxing action at Emperors Palace keeps rolling in some serious punches.
*Photo Debbie Yazbek by courtesy of Emperors Palace.
KEMPTON PARK – The six-bout African Explosion opening tournament of the year at Emperors Palace delivered all three South African international world contenders as title winners for the night, in the threesome of Hekkie Budler, Ryno Liebenberg and Johnny Muller.
The opening bout saw the sensational Ricardo Hiraman knocking out featherweight Phumudzo Monyai one minute four seconds into the third round of their scheduled four rounds to retain his unbeaten record after four fights.
Thabang Ramagole was back in the Emperors ring for a junior flyweight encounter against Sibusiso Twani, which resulted in a close win for Twani over the full distance of six rounds. The judges scored the fight unanimously 57-56.
The excitement continued in the junior welterweight division, where crowd favourite Adam de Moor in his gold and black trunks was pure gold. He knocked down Jeff Otembio, ex-DRC from the South, in the second round and followed it up with good rounds to record a great victory on points. The judges scored the fight 59-54, 60-52 and 58-54 in Adam’s victory.
In the first title fight of the evening, two times SA champion Johnny Muller met Wilbeforce Shihepo from Namibia, for the WBC silver international light heavyweight title. This was without doubt the fight of the tournament, with a brawl as never seen before. It was a hitting contest from the word go and no one moved an inch for the other one. After four rounds the Namibian was leading 2-1 on the three judges’ scorecards, but after eight rounds Johnny was leading on two of the three judges’ scorecards. At the end the final scorecards read 113-114 Shihepo, 116-113 and 116-114 for Johnny Muller, to hand Johnny the title.
Hekkie Budler needed only two minutes 59 seconds to knock out Karluis Diaz from Colombia to retain the WBA/IBO light heavyweight title and remain no.1 on Boxing Ring’s magazine ranking list.
The main bout of the “African Explosion”, for which most of the spectators were waiting for, saw Ryno Liebenberg with the biggest fan base to support him in the ring against Joey Vegas from Uganda. It took him only two minutes 56 seconds to bury his opponent with a TKO, also in the first round.
It was without doubt another Emperors Golden Gloves showpiece to start this exciting boxing year.
