Promoter Sinazo Moroke said the tournament was a success and that she was impressed by the hospitality shown to all out-of-town visitors by the Northern Cape.
CAPE Town’s Simamkele Tusheni successfully defended her non-title junior lightweight bout against Ficksburg-based challenger Cherice Smith whom she beat in the third round on a technical knockout at the Recreation Hall in Kimberley on Saturday evening.
The female boxers met for the second time in Kimberley at the weekend. The first time they were matched off was when they appeared in the lightweight division as part of Russel Binedeman’s Fight Arts Promotions undercard at the Casino Flamingo in June.
Then, as now, Tusheni scored a technical knockout against an undercooked Smith.
The Ficksburg gym manager Smith then went back to the drawing board and bagged a rematch against Tusheni who is a graduate of a youth boxing academy in Cape Town.
On Saturday Smith and Tusheni started out cautiously, circling each other in the centre of the ring. Tusheni had her guards up and tucked close to her rib cage. Smith similarly had her guard up too but her elbows were way forward, leaving her running rib exposed.
Both athletes moved around the canvas in a wooden fashion seizing each other up and scouting for an ideal moment to strike.
Smith also exhibited flaws in her punching style. Each time she released a punch and missed the target she would lurch forward, off balance. In that split second her face is dangerously exposed.
Later in the first round Tusheni landed a solid punch that shook Smith. She went sprawling onto the canvas. Smith took the count. The bell rang just as she recovered. The damage was done. The second round was evenly balanced with both fighters landing telling blows and it looked as though it was going to be a dog fight.
However, round three proved too much for Smith. She took a straight right a minute and thirty eight seconds into the round. She kissed the canvas again. She took the count but was too groggy after that knock down and the referee stopped the fight.
Cherice has the physique and muscle to do better in the ring. Her ringwork could be improved upon with more sparring bouts.
The main supporting bout, a junior flyweight encounter between Gift Pilane of the Free State and Xolisa Magusha was a humdinger. The fighters took most of the first round probing each other and landing tentative punches on target.
Pilane got lucky when a slip by Magusha led to referee Sello Isaacs doing the count on Magusha. The fighter came back with a flurry of punches later on that staggered Pilane. However, Pilane remained clear headed enough to ward off the attack.
In the fourth round Magusha’s landed a body punch on Pilane’s left side that sent the Free Stater flying onto the ropes. The punch had clearly landed on Pilane’s running rib which snuffed out his breath. Pilane was counted out.
Joseph Magugwana, one of two local fighters on the undercard of this bill, had an unprofitable day at the office. Magugwana lost his junior featherweight bout against Welkom’s Andile Mafeka.
Pundits witnessing the fight were unanimous that Magugwana had done enough to either take the fight outright or, at the least, get a draw against Mafeka.
Kenneth Hlakudi, Magugwana‘s coach, smiled wryly at the announcement of the result that gave the majority decision on the fight to Mafeka and simply said : “It’s a boxing decision. What can we say?”
Kimberlite Musa Ntlangula appearing in the flyweight division against Tshepo Mokhele of the Free State, took the whole of four rounds to get a decision against his opponent. The two of them were skittish seeing that both were novices coming into their first professional fight.
They frequently got stuck in the middle shadow boxing each other. Occasionally either of them would send out a probing jab or punch that landed way way off target.
When they did connect it was mostly at the same time at which instance they would go into a clinch. Musa, the more confident of the two fighters, resorted to chasing Mokhele around the ring and in this way occasionally connected with a solid punch.
This fight went the distance and Ntlangula had done enough to get the judges nod as the winner. An ecstatic Ntlangula clambered onto the ropes and thanked his coach and fans at ringside.
Promoter Sinazo Moroke, at the end of the fights, took time to make amends for the minor administrative hiccups that her debut fight bill encountered. She acknowledged the help of the sponsors who included the Department of Arts and Culture, represented at ringside by director David Mdutyana, the Sol Plaatje Municipality, who was represented by the new municipal manager Thapelo Matlala, Itec technologies, NC Tourism Authority, the NC Sports Authority and the media.
In post-match comments Moroke said the tournament was a success and that she was impressed by the hospitality shown to all out of town visitors by the Northern Cape. Moroke said she hoped to improve some aspects of her tournament presentation, especially the marketing and advertising.
“Other than that the games themselves were a good match among the boxers. It was exciting, It was really rumbling. I thank all our sponsors”.
