Thai boxer Wangek wins our vote for Boxer of the Week
which produced two major world title holders from the region in Siphiwe Nongqayi and Zolani Tete who both won the IBF version of the fragmented world titles.
HONOURABLE MENTION 1. It would be a bit excessive to pick Naoya Inoue based on his American debut when he toyed with Antonio Nieves before the one-sided slaughter was called off in the beginning of the seventh round.
But given the hype around the Japanese, he did not disappoint as he did what was expected of him.
Now boxing fans are salivating at the prospect of seeing more of him against opponents such as Wangek and Juan Francisco Estrada who beat Carlos Cuadras in the co-feature for the right to challenge Wangek.
HONOURABLE MENTION 2. There were doubts on whether Nkululeko Mhlongo still had it going for him and that is what influenced veteran promoter Rodney Berman to pit unbeaten prospect Brendon Thysse against him to put him to the test.
Unbeaten in nine bouts with eight knockouts, there were a fair number of experts who predicted Thysse would give Mhlongo an early exit, especially after the KwaZulu-Natalborn boxer lost his previous two bouts.
But Mhlongo atoned himself dishing out to Thysse a brutal beating for five rounds before the carnage was halted in the 10th round.
In fact the fight should have been stopped much earlier as Mhlongo used the 22-year-old challenger as target practice.
With his father Andre Thysse watching ringside, Brendon could not deal with the boxing lesson dished out by Mhlongo and after the referee finally intervened he walked on wobbly legs to his corner, a vanquished fighter.
Boxers who failed to make the limit in the honours were Thulani Mbenge who scored a one-sided win over Mziwoxolo Ndwayana to retain his SA welterweight title in the MhlongoThysse card, Kevin Lerena scoring a controversial win over French-based Congolese Youri Kalenga to claim the IBO cruiserweight title, as well as Oleksandr Usyk’s stoppage win over Marco Huck to retain his WBO cruiserweight crown in Germany.
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