The Malice at the Palace experience

Die hard boxing fans witnessed hard-hitting boxing action at Emperors Palace’s Centre Court in the Convention Centre on April 23.

Emperors Palace, in association with Golden Gloves and Bulldog Projects, presented Malice at the Palace boxing events.

With six exciting bouts the audience were glued to their seats.

The junior welterweight six round bout saw Primrose’s Grant Fourie take on Luyanda Jako.

Both fighters seemed to analyse each other in the first round but Fourie delivered more punches while Jako blocked them and continued to analyse Fourie.

Not much action was witnessed in the first round.

In the second round it was evident that these boxers are skilled as they continued to analyse each other but began to tease and serve more firm, accurate punches.

Before we knew it, Fourie thumped Jako with a good jab that got him to the ground but it didn’t do much damage as soon he managed to get up.

Fourie was motivated by the knock to the ground and the audience cheering him on, which opened room for more action as he went to his opponent in full force.

In the third and fourth Fourie came on stronger, landing stronger upper cuts which weakened, tired and ultimately knocked Mabombo down on the ground.

Fourie won the bout in a Technical Knockout (TKO) two minutes and 14 seconds into the fourth round.

An act of good sportsmanship followed when Fourie went over to Jako’s corner to make sure that he was okay, and a shake of hands touched the audience who clapped for their mature behaviour.

The super middleweight bout was contested by Vhonani Netshidamboni and Page Tshesane.

Both fighters had energy throughout the first round, striking firm punches to each other.

In the second round they seemingly have discovered each other’s weak points but kept going strong.

Tshesane started to feel the stronger and more aggressive punches from Netshidamboni in the third round.

Page landed weaker punches which might have been linked to the cut on his head as the round was paused for the officials to observe the seriousness of the cut.

All seemed well, as he was released to carry on with the fight.

Netshidamboni began to corner Tshesane, guessing that he saw the cut as a weakness.

To escape attack Tshesane had to give out a few retaliatory punches which saw his opponent back away.

Netshidamboni was still fired up in the fourth round and Tshesane came back to this much stronger, as he began to attack more and very cleverly.

In the fifth round, Tshesane fell, the audience was unsure if it was due to a missed step, slippery floor or the result of a good jab from Netshidamboni.

In the sixth and final round both the boxers were throwing punches everywhere, they were tired but neither wanted to give in.

Boksburg’s Tshehane, bled more than his opponent, but kept going strong.

Other results:

Boitshepo Mandawe won the junior welterweight bout against Herbert Nkabiti with one minute and five seconds into the fifth round.

Chris Mabombo lost the heavyweight bout to Martin Makabu with one minute and four seconds into the second round.

The ten round junior welterweight bout was contested by Paul Kamanga and Adam de Moor. Kamanga won the bout by a TKO two minutes and 36 seconds into the seventh round.