THOMAS Oosthizen and Kaizer Mabuza made the country proud when they each won the world titles on Saturday night against the Australian based opponents at the Emperors Palace in Kempton Park.
Known as Tommy Gun by those who admires him, Oosthuizen made his intensions to retain his IBO super Middleweight world title from the word go when he took the fight to his challenger, Serge Yannick through to the sixth round before the Cameroon born who is since fighting out of Australia was saved by the referee Andile Matika in the 47th second of the sixth round.
Signs of defeat were written all over Yannic’s face as early as the first round after Oosthuizen’s punches were slowly closing his right eye which began to bleed.
This is Oosthuizen’s fourth title defense and has so far fought 19 fights, won 18 (13 Kos) and drawn one. The 23 year-old Oosthuizen is ranked 7th by the IBO and 9th by the WBC.
Meanwhile Kaizer “Tsunami” Mabuza revived his boxing career when he stopped his challenger, Steve Wills in the sixth round to win the vacant IBO Junior Welterweight world title.
The Thembisa, Ekurhuleni-based boxer could have finished the stubborn Australian challenger as early as the fifth round when he showered him with some heavy punches, but it was not meant to be as Wills proved to be a no push-over, however he finally surrendered the fight and only to be stopped by Mabuza in the 40th second of the sixth round.
In another fight, Flo Simba revived his career when he beat his ally, Daniel Bruwel on points to win the Catchweight bout. The judges scored the fight 98-92, 97-93 and 99-91 in favour of Simba who had lost two fights in a row ahead of this fight.
The bout was also meant to be an eliminator for the forthcoming Cruiserweight Super 8 due in June, but promoter, Rodney Bergman of Golden Gloves has since confirmed that both the boxers have qualified for the tournament.
Earlier on Sipho Taliwe produced a sterling performance to beat his former sparring partner, Joey Stiglingh by 118-110, 118-109 and 117-110 to retain his WBC international Junior Lightweight title.
