By Ron Jackson

In one of the poorest South African heavyweight title fights in recent years Ruann Visser knocked out defending champion Osborne Machimana at 2:59 in the seventh round at the Emerald Casino in Vanderbijlpark on Friday night. The 39-year-old Machimana (316 lbs) weighing in at his heaviest ever came into the ring with a massive roll of flesh over his trunks and managed to survive into the seventh round behind a cross-armed defense and his years of experience in the ring.

In the opening round Visser (255 lbs) scored with his jab and rights to the body against the slow moving champion.

This was the same pattern in the second round with the lumbering Machimana able to roll with the clubbing punches from Visser.

In round three Visser, 27, continued to score with lefts and rights to the head before dumping Machimana on his side in the neutral corner with a left to the body for a count.

The champion made a bit of comeback in the fifth round as he took the fight to Visser but this was his last stand.

In round seven the challenger continued to score with his left jab and then dropped Machimana with a right hand to the head in the neutral corner just before the bell, where he was counted out by referee Jaap van Nieuwenhuizen.

The unused judges were Pumeza Zinakile, Simon Mokadi and Ben Ncapi.

Visser improved his record to 13-1-1nc, 12 KOs, and Machimana’s record dropped to 23-11-2, 17 KOs.