Boxing

Harry Simon and Ruben Groenewald came face to face in Windhoek on Thursday and both predicted victories in their upcoming light heavyweight fight which will take place at the SKW Hall in Windhoek on June 23.

Groenewald, a former World Boxing Union middleweight champion, said he had trained very hard and was ready for the fight. He said he first met Harry Simon in 2000 when he was his sparring partner in London.

Immanuel “Prince” Naidjala will be the main attraction when he defends his WBO Interim Africa title against Emilio Norfat of Kenya at the Windhoek Country Club on June 8.

Namibian boxing promoter Nestor Tobias announced the boxing bonanza at a press conference on Wednesday, which will see a further nine bouts on the undercard.

Tobias said that Norfat would be a tough prospect after he gave an impressive performance against Namibia’s WBO African bantamweight champion Paulus ‘The Rock’ Ambunda in June last year.

The Chef de Mission of the Namibian boxing team to the Africa Olympic qualifying competition in Morocco, Ambrosius Kandjii took full blame for the fiasco that resulted in Simon Johannes missing his fight and being disqualified from the competition.

Addressing the media at a press conference on Tuesday, Kandjii said that Morocco had changed to winter time the previous evening and a mix up in the times had resulted in Simon missing his first round bout.

Mujandjae Kasuto and Jonas Matheus will represent Namibia at the Olympic Games after they qualified in the middleweight and bantamweight divisions respectively at the Africa Olympic qualifiers in Casablanca, Morocco.

Kasuto won a silver medal in the 75kg Middleweight category after losing 10-2 on points to Haddioui Badr-Eddine of Morocco in the final on Saturday.

Kasuto showed a lot of aggression, taking the fight to Badr-Eddine, but his punches did not land cleanly, while the Moroccan raked in the points on the counterattack.

Mujandjae Kasuto became the only Namibian boxer to qualify for the Olympic Games when he progressed to the semifinals at the African Olympic qualifiers in Casablanca, Morocco on Wednesday evening.

Fighting in the 75kg middleweight category, Kasuto narrowly defeated Hassane Chagtmi of Tunisia 16-15 on points in their quarterfinal encounter.

According to the judges’ scorecard, Kasuto won the first round 5-2 and Chagtmi won the second round 7-5, while the third round was drawn 6-6, to give Kasuto a narrow points win.

Namibia’s participation at the Africa Olympic boxing qualifiers in Casablanca, Morocco got off to a disastrous start as light flyweight Jafet Uutoni was knocked out in the first round, while super heavyweight Tobias Munihango lost on points. To compound matters, flyweight Simon Johannes didnt arrive in time for his first round bout with the result that he lost on a walkover.

Of Namibia’s six boxers, only Mujandjae Kasuto, Jonas Matheus and Jeremia Nakathila managed to win their first bouts.

Namibia’s top amateur boxers have arrived in Casablanca, Morocco for the African Olympic qualifying tournament and are confident of winning some medals to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games.

More than 200 boxers from 35 nations will be fighting it out for the 48 Olympic slots that will be available.

The secretary general of the Namibia Boxing Federation Joe Kaperu said that the boxers were in top shape after spending a month at a training camp in Cuba in preparation for the Olympic qualifiers.

Albinus “Danny Boy” Felesianu beat Tinashe Mtodza of Zimbabwe with a knockout in the eighth and final round of their featherweight encounter at the SKW Hall in Windhoek on Friday night.

Felesianu put Mtodza down with a crunching hook to the body and although the Zimbabwean managed to beat the count he immediately went down to a similar blow to the body and was counted out with only one second in the eighth round remaining.

There was never a doubt about the outcome as the aggressive Felesianu dominated from the start, although he was a bit wild at times and made to miss a lot.

Namibian boxing promoter Nestor Tobias praised Tyson Ushona’s performance against Jan Zaveck on Saturday evening, saying he only lost the fight because of the referee’s interference.

Addressing a press conference in Windhoek on Wednesday, Tobias said it was a tough fight but the referee had cost him the fight.

Tyson Ushona failed in his bid to win the WBO Intercontinental title when Jan Zaveck beat him on a unanimous points decision in Maribor, Slovenia on Saturday night.

Zaveck won the fight comfortably on points with all three judges giving him a big victory margin - 117-109, 117-109, 119-110.

According to one observer, Alexey Sukachev of boxingscene.com, the scoring was however highly controversial, with Ushona unlucky not to have won the fight.