Berridge struggles with height, altitude in defeat

Kiwi light heavyweight boxer Robert Berridge has lost the third fight of his career, coming up short in an underwhelming unanimous points decision for the IBO world title against Thomas Oosthuizen in Gauteng, South Africa.

Berridge, now 26-3, took the fight on Saturday (NZT Sunday) against the undefeated South African (25-0) on three weeks notice and managed to last 12 rounds. But the judge’s scorecards were definitive; 116-112, and two which read 117-111, all in favour of Oosthuizen, who did enough but laboured at times.

In a farcical situation, Oosthuizen is now forced to give up 30 per cent of his purse, and more importantly, vacate the title after twice failing to make the 79.35 kilogram weight limit.

A victory for Berridge would have seen him take the title but, as was expected, he struggled to get inside frequently, giving up 20cm of height and reach to the title holder.

Berridge opened up a cut above Oosthuizen’s left ear and eye in the 10th round but wasn’t busy enough while behind on points in the closing stages.

The 30-year-old Aucklander, who has now lost two of his last four fights with both coming outside New Zealand, may now consider dropping a weight division to super middleweight (76.2kg).

At the top end his comparatively small stature makes competing with taller competitors difficult, as was shown in his loss to impressive Russian giant Vasily Lepikhin in America last year.

Berridge’s manager, Vasco Kovacevic, felt although his man landed some heavy shots the altitude took the sting out of his follow up flurries.

‘‘No excuses, Rob was a little flat and fatigued when he got on the inside, he couldn’t put the second phases together before Oosthuizen tied him up or snuck out of range,’’ Kovacevic said.

‘‘Given a full camp, with high altitude in mind, I am certain we could have tipped the judges scales in our favour or stopped him.

‘‘We will be looking to challenge for the vacant title again in the very near future.’’