Ndombassy launches protest after rule is ignored in WBA fight

Cristiano Ndombassy’s handlers have drafted an official protest after their charge suffered a highly controversial fifth-round technical knockout loss to Roarke Knapp at Emperors Palace on Saturday night.

The Cape-Town-based Angolan, who had taken the fight at short notice, dropped his South African opponent with a booming right midway through the third round of their WBA Pan-African middleweight title fight and sustained the onslaught to send a bemused Knapp to the canvas a further three times.

Referee Tony Nyangiwe administered a standing eight count on three of the occasions and ruled a slip on the other, but erroneously failed to apply the specified WBA three-knockdown rule.

Ndombassy clearly wasn’t himself in the fourth round as Knapp managed to regather his composure. The Angolan emerged from his corner at the bell for the fifth round and instead of engaging, simply patted his opponent on the back as his trainer Emil Brice flung the towel into the ring.

Ndombassy’s promoter Jackie Brice was incensed. “We are drafting an official protest. Our boy did not want to come out. He said he was ‘fighting against the promoter’ and had already won according to the WBA rules,” he said.

In terms of fight protocol, the pre-fight rules meeting was obligatory and both the Knapp and Ndombassy camps would have been signatories to the WBA document.

The WBA document states: “The three knockdown rule will be in effect. If the boxer has received three knockdowns in the same round, recognised as such by the referee, he will lose by KO (knockout).”

The Association of Boxing Commission’s unified rules of boxing does not include a three knockdown rule, and fight supervisor Stan Christodoulou may claim such or that it was subject to interpretation of the rules, but the fight was under the auspices of the Mexico-based WBA and the rule did seem to apply in this instance.

“We are boxing people and will give credit to the way Roarke Knapp showed heart and determination, but boxing is ruled by laws. The fight should have been stopped in the third round and declared,” Jackie Brice insisted.

Earlier on the card at the ‘No Love Lost’ tournament, national junior-middleweight champion Shervantaigh Koopman used his variation of attack to the head and body to good effect to earn a unanimous 10-round points verdict over the switch-hitting Henriques Lando of the DRC, claiming the IBF Africa title.

String-bean heavyweight Wilhelm Nebe suffered a first-round technical knockout defeat to Cape Town-based Juan Roux, while former Maritzburg United footballer Philelani Khumalo underlined his immense promise as a boxer by scoring a unanimous six-round points victory over the rugged Zimbabwean Thabani Mhlanga, stretching his record to 4-0.