Chauke now proud owner of national belt
Fifth defence against Kotana catapults veteran
Jackson “M3” Chauke is the outright owner of the South African championship belt after defending the national flyweight title five times.
He achieved that rare feat after registering his fifth defence against Sinethemba Kotana last week at an ESPN Africa tournament in Sandton.
Male champions are required to defend their titles five times to claim ownership of the national belt, while their female counterparts need only three defences to achieve the same feat.
Chauke, a superfit 37-yearold, was ushered into war by trainers Damien Durandt and Edson Kazembe, the ABU champion, who has previously held the WBC International and WBO Global belts.
Chauke was just too fast and furious for his 24-year-old challenger, who tried his best, which was not enough to scare off Chauke.
Credit must be given to Kotana for trying to make a fight of it. But the truth is that such a championship came too soon for him, especially against a seasoned campaigner like Chauke.
The ring veteran from Tembisa did not just beat Kotana, he broke his spirit and confidence.
There were moments, especially in the last three rounds, where Kotana just hung in there because he wanted to finish all the rounds to salvage his pride, but the war was already lost and he had also run out of ideas.
The main supporting bout degenerated into a sparring session as Gaveni Nkwenteni failed to justify his challenge of national mini-flyweight champion Bangile Nyangani, who retained his belt via a lopsided points win (119-109, 119-109, 120-108) .
Luvuyo Sizani proved too strong and powerful for Rowen Campbell in their light-heavyweight eightrounder, which Sizani won by a deserved unanimous points decision.
Sizani dropped the former SA super-middleweight champion twice in rounds four and seven.
Sizani maintained his undefeated record with the seventh win of his career.
Cayden Truter earned a fifth round TKO win over Nkululeko Mdletshe while Lence Ngoy from Congo earned a majority decision win over Ntethelelo Nkosi in their sixrounder.
Darrin Rossouw defeated Sheldon Schultz by a stoppage in the fifth round, while Patrick Mukala from Congo stopped Malawian Simon Tchetha in the third round.