Junior sinks The Rock
FOURWAYS – Ilunga 'Junior' Makabu knocked Thabiso 'The Rock' Mchunu out with a stinging right uppercut followed by a mean left hook to seal his victory.
The 12-round World Boxing Council (WBC) cruiserweight final title eliminator bout staged at the Durban ICC was a tale of two completely different halves. Mchunu began the first few rounds like a bull seeing red, strutting around the ring confidently and throwing potent combinations past Makabu’s guard.
While Makabu tried to reverse the pressure, all he ended up doing was walking straight into Mchunu’s thumping punches. Mchunu’s defensive movements and his impressive Mayweather-style shoulder rolls had his fans confident that a win was in the bag.
But the start of round seven saw a shift. Makabu started fighting his way back, landing smart combinations. Although trying to keep his hold of the fight, Mchunu seemed to have punched himself dry and was now on the receiving end a lot more.
Makabu’s concentrated barrage of punches got Mchunu’s legs buckling for the first time in the fight. He continued the attack to the 10th round like a shark smelling blood, with Mchunu being saved by the bell a couple of times.
Makabu stopped the fight in the early minutes of the 11th round with a nicely timed uppercut landing on Mchunu’s nose. The Rock went down face first and never recovered. During his thank you speech, Makabu thanked God for his win, and President Jacob Zuma “for stopping xenophobia”.
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