South African heavyweight champion gets beaten in Pretoria
The South African heavyweight boxing champion Ruann Visser gave a very disappointing performance in Pretoria on Sunday in his ten-round battle against Zimbabwe's underrated Elvis Moyo.
The current South African heavyweight boxing champion Ruann Visser’s dream of world glory has suffered a setback when he lost his fight against Zimbabwe’s Elvis Moyo on points after a unanimous decision by the judges at the Sun Arena in Pretoria on Sunday.
Visser delivered an extremely disappointing performance in his second battle after returning to the ring after being unable to box for about nine months due to a controversial suspension.
While his below average performance in his previous fight against inexperienced Luke Sutherland four months ago – also in the Sun Arena – was excusable because he made his return after the suspension, there were no excuses for Visser this time around.
The South African champion received a proper boxing lesson from his Zimbabwean opponent on Sunday and it has again shown that his onslaught in the ring will have to improve dramatically if he hopes to be considered as a top heavyweight worldwide in the near future.
The biggest disappointment for Visser’s supporters was his passive attitude in the ring. The ‘Giant King’ – as he is known to his supporters – statistically had almost all the advantage over Moyo, but could simply never really get going in Sunday’s main bout of the Battle of the Warriors 3 tournament.
Moyo has easily won the first five rounds in the ten-round battle simply because he did all the attacking, while Visser looked almost like someone who was busy with a shadow boxing exercise.
Only after the sixth round Visser slowly began to fight back, but his onslaught was inaccurate and sloppy. Moyo has managed to break through Visser’s defence with good footwork and accurate shots, despite the SA champion’s great advantage in terms of reach.
Visser’s footwork, on the other hand, was very average, while his hand speed and overall boxing skills are definitely not on the standard expected of a national heavyweight champion.
After the fight some of Visser’s supporters expressed their concern whether the young giant does have the instinct and necessary natural aggression to be a successful international boxer.
* An interesting turn of events in this third tournament in the Battle of the Warriors series was that not a single knockout has been performed in the six bouts. This despite the fact that the tournament included three heavyweight battles and a cruiserweight fight.
The closest it has come to a knockout was two boxers who were knocked down, but then survived the eight seconds count. It happened in the cruiserweight fight when Chris Thompson briefly sent Lebo Moshitoa to the canvas in the fifth round, while young Josh Pretorius also did so in the second round of his heavyweight fight against Kizito Rumhanya. Both Thompson and Pretorius finally scored wins by points-decision,
Pretorius, incidentally, was the one heavyweight in action in the tournament that really looked like a potential future star. The young man from Richards Bay hits extremely hard and his skills in the ring – although it can still improve much – are currently much better than those of Visser. With the right guidance and a little more experience, Pretorius may soon pose a threat to Visser’s national title.
Luke Sutherland, the man who got his chance in October last year when he fought against Visser in his return battle, again made a brave performance against Justice Siliga. However, Siliga, who made an unsuccessful attack on the SA heavyweight title two years ago, had too much experience for Sutherland. The latter will have to make drastic changes to his slightly reckless style if he wants to become a better boxer.
Sunday’s tournament kicked off with two very exciting battles in the lighter weight divisions. Denys Lazarev from Ukraine beat Velentine Mutanda easily, as their welterweight fight ended in the fourth round due to Mutanda’s disqualification. He was repeatedly warned by the referee against his unlawful tactics.
In the second battle of the tournament, Denis Mwale of Malawi beat Noah Chikwambana on points in a lightweight battle.
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