THE boxing fraternity was treated to some of the best of boxing this year at the Young Guns tournament held at Emperors Palace on Thursday, July 30.
Boxing is coming of age in the country and does not lack any action, and in all fairness some promoters have the tendency to make match-making look like an easy job. But yes, the code of boxing in South Africa still needs to be upgraded by the administrators.
With this in mind, the most recent boxing extravaganza of excellence was made possible by Golden Gloves Promotion, the King of Box ’n Dines, AfricanRing, and steered to perfection by Jeff Ellis. Having the likes of matchmaker Ruben Rasodi with 36 years of experience on his side, the team once again produced boxing of a high calibre in front of a sold out crowd.
The main bout of the evening saw Kevin Lerena snatch up the South African cruiserweight title after delivering powerful pounding to the face and body of Deon Coetzee. The 23-year-old Lerena came out firing from the first second to the
last and kept blasting Coetzee with an array of punches. His trainer Peter Smith and company had his job cut out to perfection. As the pressure mounted, the battered Coetzee momentarily fought back at his hyped-up challenger, but his attempts had no effect and in the end he could only watch as his belt found a new owner. Lerena won the title through a unanimous point’s decision by the judges 117/111, 118/110, 117/111.
The main supporting bout saw Grant Fourie rewarded for his years of patience and coming back from an illness to be crowned as the new South African junior-welterweight champion. The 34-year-old found openings in Warren Joubert’s defense which unsettled the former champion and enabled Fourie to pound his way to the title with good and accurate punches to receive a unanimous decision by the judges 117/111, 116/110, 114/112. Joubert won the title a few months ago but struggled to up his game against his long time friend and former stablemate Fourie.
In the junior-flyweight bout DeeJay Kriel enhanced his boxing record with yet another TKO when he dispersed of Thabo Moabi in the fifth round 2:47. After six rounds a draw was awarded to Lodumo Lamati and Cebo Ngema in the bantamweight division. The judge’s scorecard read 37/37, 35/39, 37/37. To open the evening’s proceedings, light heavywight bout debutants Fernando Rodrigues scored, over four rounds, a unanimous points decision by the judges 39/36, 38/37, 39/37 over Christian Okeke.
