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Three World Boxing Federation
(WBF) World Championship fights
found winners on Friday night,
March 31. One in Fort-de-France,
Martinique, and two in Cape
Town, South Africa. One saw a
reigning champion unseated,
while two had vacant titles
claimed by very competent new
champions.
At the Hall des Sports Stade
Louis Achille, in
Fort-de-France, Diego Diaz
Gallardo from Argentina started
his challenge of WBF World
Middleweight Champion Michel
Mothmora strong, scoring a
knock-down in the first round to
silence the local crowd.
But Motmora beat the count of
referee Christophe Hembert, and
by the second round he had
already composed himself and
used his superior technique to
out-box Gallardo. While the
visitor was very game, Mothmora
won every round until round
eight, when everything fell
apart for him.
Still very focused and
determined, Gallardo took
advantage of the effective
body-work he had used to tire
Mothmora in previous rounds, and
when he hurt him early in the
eighth he followed up and got
the stoppage with a flurry of
hard, clean punches. Time of
stoppage was 0:55.
The new WBF World Middleweight
Champion improved his
professional record to 21-5-1
(12), while Mothmora, making his
first title-defense, drops to
29-25 (11). The fight headlined
a show promoted by Alex Dunon
and CR Martinique.
A few hours earlier at the
Oliver Tambo Hall in Cape Town,
South Africa, local favourites
Mzuvukile Magwaca and Bukiwe
Nonina won vacant World Boxing
Federation (WBF) World
Bantamweight and Womens World
Bantamweight titles
respectively.
Undefeated Magwaca scored a
split decision over Philippines
national champion Jason Ganoy,
who came forward for most of the
fight and forced the home-man to
box on the back-foot. Magwaca
did so very effectively, and
most ringsiders felt the right
winner was found.
Judges Clifford Mbelu and Eddie
Marshal scored the contest
117-112 and 117-110 for Magwaca,
who improved to 18-0-2 (10), and
judge Darryl Ribbink saw it as
115-114 for Ganoy, 26-7-2 (19).
Referee in charge of the action
was Thabo Spampool.
Many considered South African
champion Bukiwe Nonina the
underdog in her first world
title-challenge against former
world champion Alesia Graf from
Germany, but this was another
case where the underdog rose to
the occasion and came out on
top.
In a high-paced fight, Nonina
boxed masterfully against the
aggressive Graf, who with twenty
previous championship fights on
her ledger was by far the more
experienced of the two. It was
an evenly contested bout, but
after ten rounds Nonina was
crowned new world champion by
unanimous decision.
Scores from judges Darryl
Ribbink, Thabo Spampool and
Elroy Marshall were 96-94, 96-94
and 96-93, as Nonina took her
record to 11-4-1 (2). Referee
was Eddie Marshall.
36-year-old Alesia Graf, who won
her first professional title in
2005, proved that she is still
world class, but sees her record
drop to 29-6 (13).
The WBF World Championship
double-header was promoted by
Lyon Promotions, Dream Team
Promotions and Amandla
Promotions.
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