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South Africa’s Francois Botha
retained his World Boxing
Federation world heavyweight
title with a majority draw
against Germany-based Cuban
Pedro Carrion on a show promoted
by Sport Event Steinforth on
October 24 in Dessau, Germany.
After twelve sluggish rounds,
the judges scored the fight
114-114 (Tony Tiberi), 115-115 (Matteo
Fratini) and 114-113
(Jean-Marcel Nartz).
Botha, who hurt his right hand
early in the bout and found it
difficult to deal with the
massive height of Carrion, was
not happy with his own
performance, saying:
“I apologize to the fans for my
performance. There are only two
fights in my career that I am
very unhappy about, and one of
them is the Carrion fight. The
other one is my loss to Lennox
Lewis. As the fight progressed I
couldn’t get my combinations off
at all, as the pain in my hand
was too bad. I am very unhappy
with this fight, and next time
“The White Buffalo” will show
everybody that he is back and on
the way to the top again”.
Botha’s record now stands at
47-4-3 (28), and he is hoping to
defend the WBF title again soon.
X-Rays have shown that the
hand-injury was not as bad as
feared, just a hairline
fracture, and that with the
proper care he can be ready to
fight again earlier than
expected.
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