Mbenge outboxes weak Inson
THULANI Mbenge was finally taken the distance as a professional, but the unbeaten welterweight underlined his class as he hammered brave Filipino Jay-ar Inson around the Emperors Palace ring for eight rounds.
Mbenge’s record improved to 11 wins, 10 by stoppage, while Inson suffered his first paid defeat, dropping to 13-1 (nine KOs).
Mbenge — the only South African boxer to have won a Commonwealth Games in the past two editions, taking silver at Glasgow 2014 — looked like a million bucks from the outside.
He took control from the opening bell, landing power punches from range, to the body and to the head, and taking almost nothing back in return.
Mbenge dropped Inson with a right early in the third round, and by that stage this looked like the most one-sided battle since the Polish cavalry charged the German panzer division in 1939.
But that’s when Inson, who holds the World Boxing Organisation’s Asia Pacific title, gave value for money, and frustrated the South African, sucking him into trench warfare.
At close range Mbenge started eating leather, and too often he automatically tried to clinch his way out of trouble, instead of using short punches like uppercuts and hooks.
He got away with it because Inson didn’t pack enough firepower to threaten him, but it’s a lesson he will hopefully learn.
Even so, Mbenge, who suffered a bad cut above his right eye from a clash of heads in the last round, won a lop-sided decision by two margins of 80-71 and one 79-72.
Inson, by virtue of the belt he holds, is lingering in the top 15 of the WBO, and now it’s a question of Mbenge trying to get a world ranking himself.
Unbeaten super-middleweight prospect Ricky Tshabalala dropped awkward Mozambican Benjamin Nhabe in the final fourth round en route to a split decision victory, but he was far from convincing.
Tshabalala seemed to struggle with stamina and he relied heavily on an overhand right hand that is not going to catch opponents with better defensive skills.
He needs more time at the drawing board.