By Mesuli Zifo

CLEUTUS Mbhele was supposed to be the fresher, sprightly and all brawn against Phumzile Matyhila in their South African bantamweight title clash at Orient Theatre in East London, South Africa on Saturday night

But it was the “Kid Chocolate “ Matyhila who proved that experience can overcome youth when he scored a ninth round technical knockout victory to see off the 21-year-old’s challenge and retained his crown for the second time.

Already pushing 35 years of age, Matyhila who entered the fight as an underdog in the majority of ringsiders as well as the media despite being a champion, was never really threatened in a fairly one sided fight.

In fact Mbhele whose two losses were to former champion Klaas Mboyane, proved to be painfully one dimensional with his attack of double right jab followed by a straight left so predictable that Matyhila easily darted out of the harm’s way long before the left was thrown.

Mbhele’s left handed attack also proved so technically flawed as he first stomped with his front right foot while throwing his weak right jab before following with his straight left.

This was the basis of his offence which was never going to trouble a savvy boxer like Matyhila who easily timed Mbhele while blindly charging in.

It was obvious that Mbhele had nothing more in his arsenal besides the one dimensional attack and as the rounds progressed Matyhila was so enjoying himself that he did not even bother to set up his attack with a jab.

He would simply throw a lead right while using his left as a pawing punch to negate Mbhele’s predictable double right jab.

Going to the middle rounds, it was a matter of time before Matyhila who thrives on capitalizing on one dimensional opponents, stamped his authority into the fight as he darted in out, increasingly making it impossible for Mbhele to land anything of significance.

Mbhele also appeared to be in badly need of technical advice from his corner as the fight gradually slipped from his fingers with no turnaround strategy in place.

Matyhila who had represented SA at the 2000 Sydney Olympics was relishing on the moment of his dominance following unsatisfactory performances in his couple of last bouts.

Sensing that Mbhele had nothing more to offer, Matyhila charged forwarded and landed a good left hook which buckled Mbhele’s knees.

Matyhila seized the opportunity to land a grazing right hand which surprisingly dropped Mbhele and when he got up he embraced Matyhila in a congratulatory mood, obviously surrendering defeat leaving the referee with no choice but to stop the fight.

The victory extended Matyhila’s fight record to 18 wins, one loss and two draws while Mbhele dropped to three losses and three draws in 20 bouts.

In another clash former WBC International, SA flyweight and bantamweight champion Nkqubela Gwazela was surprisingly outfoxed and outsmarted by unheralded Siviwe Hasheni in a junior featherweight clash.

Gwazela who seemingly left his punching power in the flyweight proved beyond doubt that he cannot compete in the junior featherweight class as he appeared lethargic and painfully slow, unable to impose his will on the backpedaling Hasheni.