By Ron Jackson
In a closely fought slugfest South Africa’s Roarke Knapp came back from three big knockdowns in the third round to stop Cape Town based Angolan Christiano Ndombassy in the fifth round to win the vacant WBA Pan African middleweight title at Emperors Palace near Kempton Park on Saturday night.
With both boxers coming forward throwing punches in the opening round Knapp (71.90kg) possibly did enough to shade the round and scoring with combination left and rights to the head he also won the second round.
Early in round three after an exchange of punches Ndombassy (71.60kg) landed with a big right to the jaw that sent Knapp down for a count, and soon afterwards Knapp was down again on two occasions after having his head twisted back on both occasions with right hand punches to the jaw.
How, he managed to beat the count on all three occasions was only down to his tremendous fitness and courage.
In the fourth round Knapp made an amazing comeback to dominate Ndombassy who did not come out at the bell for round five, when his corner threw in the towel and referee Tony Nyangiwe waved the fight off.
The 23-year-old Knapp improved his record to 13-1-1, 11 KOs, and Ndombassy, 33, saw his record drop to 12-6, 9 KOs.
SHERVONTA KOOPMAN WINS IBF CONTINENTAL AFRICA TITLE
South African junior middleweight champion Shervonta Koopman (69.50kg) won the vacant IBF Continental Africa junior middleweight title when he gained a hard earned ten round unanimous point’s decision over South African based Angolan Henriques Lando (68.90kg).
Koopman improved his record to 9-0, 6 KOs and Lando’s record dropped to 6-3, 6 KOs.
UNDERCARD
Middleweight: Phikelani Khumalo W pts 6 Thembani Mhlanga and in a heavyweight contest scheduled for six rounds, Juan Roux knocked out Wilhelm Nebe at 2 minutes 17 seconds into the first round.
The tournament was presented but Golden Gloves Promotions.
How Roarke Knapp managed to come back after those viscous knockdowns was unbelievable. Must say with a different ref the fight could easily have been stopped and Knapp would not been given the opportunity to continue. Good fight.
Wilhelm Nebe is a giant of a heavyweight, but has the worst defense ever. Looks like a great guy, but worry about him getting badly hurt, maybe boxing is not something he should continue in. Juan Roux will be interesting to follow in his next fights.