Jatoroora Tjingavete won the vacant WBO Pan African lightweight title when he beat compatriot Martin Haikali on a unanimous points decision over 12 rounds on Saturday night. In a fantastic fight that had the 500-strong crowd up on its feet cheering wildly, Tjingavete emerged as a comfortable winner on all three judges’ scorecards, 120-109, 118-112 and 117-112.
The quicker Tjingavete accumulated points with his sharp jab, but Haikali had him in trouble on numerous occasions, when he trapped him on the ropes and landed strong combinations to head and body.
Both boxers took heavy blows but showed great recovery skills to launch counter attacks to the delight of the packed crowd. Haikali caught Tjingavete with a stunning right hook in the third round, but Tjingavete showed a great chin to recover and see out the round on the ascendancy with his strong jab.
By the middle rounds, Tjingavete started moving around more, jabbing strongly, but in the seventh Haikali cornered him on the ropes and the two boxers slugged it out toe to toe to the delight of the fans.
The non-stop action continued in the eighth round and in the ninth Haikali once again caught Tjingavete with a crunching left hook that had the crowd roaring its approval. Tjingavete recovered and finished the final rounds stronger, showing fast hand speed and movement.
It was a great fight and it was a pity that there had to be a loser, but in the end Tjingavete was adjudged the winner, as he received the WBO Pan African lightweight belt from the WBO’s African representative Andrew Smale.
Nuumbembe beats Mbowane
The rest of the evening’s boxing was a disappointment as several last minute changes were made to the original fighting schedule.
Tjingavete’s original opponent, Isaac Phonkeni of Zimbabwe and his compatriot, Livingstone Kachigwada, who was supposed to fight Ali Nuumbembe, both failed medical tests three days before the fight and promoter Nestor Tobias had to frantically search for replacements.
He managed to fly in South African boxer Moses Mbowane to replace Kachigwada but the fight which was supposed to be a WBO African welterweight title fight had to be scaled down to a non title fight. It was a pity because a great fight was expected between Nuumbembe and Kachigwada, who was unbeaten in 16 pro fights.
Mbowane had a patchy record of only five wins from 16 fights and although he started strongly enough, his limitations were soon exposed by Nuumbembe.
Nuumbembe started landing some hooks by the second round and although Mbowane retaliated strongly in the third, even staggering Nuumbembe with a hard right at a stage, his comeback was brief.
Nuumbembe picked up the pace by the fourth round displaying some great hand speed and with shouts of “Ali, Ali, Ali,” reverberating around the hall, Nuumbembe laid into his opponent with some snappy combinations.
Mbowane did his best to hang on and stay out of trouble but the end came swiftly as Nuumbembe put him down for the count of ten with a right hook in the fifth round.
Uushona wins WBA Pan African welterweight title
The much-anticipated rematch between Tyson Uushona and Tommy Hango for the WBA Pan African welterweight title also failed to materialise after Hango failed a medical test and Zimbabwe’s Misheck Kondwane was roped in at the last minute to face Uushona.
Kondwane had previously fought Namibia’s world champion Paulus Moses in a lightweight fight three years ago, giving a nuggety performance before losing on points, but against Uushona he was clearly out of his depth.
Uushona started slowly, sizing up his opponent and waiting for an opening and by the second round he started landing with his jab and some combinations to the body. Although Kondwane retaliated briefly, it never troubled Tyson and the end came soon as he pole-axed Kondwane with a tremendous punch in the fourth round that sent him crashing through the ropes to the canvas.
With the victory, Uushona claimed the WBA Pan African title for the first time and he clearly has a great future ahead, as he is now unbeaten after 18 pro fights.
Meroro beats Moyo
In a Super middleweight fight, Namibia’s Vikapita Meroro made short work of Zimbabwe’s Victor Moyo.
Moyo came out swinging wildly, but he hardly connected and when he was knocked down early in the second round the end came soon. He managed to beat the count of ten, but Meroro was all over him, knocking him down to the canvas two more times to win the bout on a second round technical knockout.
Meroro now has a record of 15 wins and one defeat while Moyo has a record of six wins and eight defeats.
In the first fight of the evening, Namibian welterweight Sacky Shikukuthu took his unbeaten record to six fights when he knocked out compatriot Ileni Shitaleni in the first round.
Shikukuthu put Shitaleni down within 30 seconds for the first time and although Shitaleni bravely got up and continued, Shikukutu was all over him and knocked him out with a tremendous left hook.