A night of knockouts Hitman successfully defends title It was an exciting Saturday night when all the Namibian boxers successfully defended their titles during the Champions in Action Part Seven boxing bonanza. KAINO NGHTIONGOTanzanian Cosmos Cheka’s threatening words were too cheap for Namibian Paulus ‘The Hitman’ Moses, who knocked him out to successfully defend his WBO Africa Lightweight title on Saturday evening.
Cheka, who had promised to send “old man” into retirement, could not deliver on his threat as he started off by going in circles around the ring in the first round.
The two boxers returned to the second round with a sense of action as they produced equal action, which also saw Moses going down in that round.
Moses however jumped up and indicated that he was still strong to continue, as he delivered a combination of jabs and uppercuts.
Cheka continued to frustrate Moses with a few punches in the fourth round, while Moses then started getting closer to Cheka to score some points.
The fifth round did not start off well for the Tanzanian, who was being held on the ropes defencelessly as Moses landed more punches that he failed to block.
After about six punches landed on Cheka without him responding, South African referee Clifford Mbelu stopped the fight 2:02 seconds into the fifth round.
The referee’s decision did not please the visiting team as they bitterly complained about the decision.
Speaking to the media after successfully defending his title, Moses said he was the more experienced boxer and that served as an advantage for him.
“The fight was okay and because I am an experienced boxer, Cheka was running and did not want to fight but he caught me in the second round because I stepped back and knocked me down but that did not hurt me that is why I was not dizzy and managed to come up and continued,” he said.
He added that his coach instructed him to get closer to Cheka as he was running away.
Despite his opponent having being angry about the decision, Moses believes that he won the fight fairly.
“I have won this fight fair and square because I caught him in the corner then delivered six punches so the referee had to stop the fight because they were landing on him and he was not stopping them.
“He came here talking too much that he is going to send me into retirement but I am still here and still the champion, and I am going forward,” he boasted.
Cheka’s coach Robert Mathew said he could not understand the decision but later contradicted himself by agreeing that it was the right decision.
“The referee saw that the other opponent could not respond but I don’t know much why he stopped the fight and couldn’t wait and count for Cheka if he can continue to fight.
“The rule however says the referee should stop the fight and I agree that the referee was right,” he said.
In the bout of undefeated boxers, Sakaria ‘Desert Storm’ Lukas successfully defended his WBO Africa Interim featherweight title when he knocked out his Tanzanian challenger in the fourth round to remain undefeated after 18 fights.
Namibian Japhet ‘Thin Man’ Utoni retained his WBO Africa International junior flyweight title, knocking out Tanzanian Twalib Tuwa in the fourth round.
Walter ‘The Executioner’ Kuutondokwa also retained his WBO Africa middleweight title against Malawian Chimwemwe Chiotha, winning by technical knockout in the eighth round.