By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Former IBF minimumweight champion Florante Condes has lost a lopsided decision to undefeated South African Nkosinathi Joyi in an IBF title eliminator at the Orient Theater in East London, on Saturday morning [Manila time] but was commended by South African boxing writers for his brave performance against a much taller opponent.
All three judges were South Africans raising questions among Filipino boxing fans about the fairness of the IBF in their assignment of ring officials although the referee was American Bill Clancy.
Wally Snowball and Deon Dwarte both scored a shutout for the hometown fighter Joyi (120-107) while the third judge, Isaac Tshabalala hardly deferred with a 119-108 scorecard.
Condes was knocked down in the 11th round but withstood the efforts of the No.3 ranked Joyi to add to his record of 15 knockouts in his 20th fight.
Super Sport reported that Joyi mever lost a round and kept his fists working like pistons even as he made sure not to drop his guard against the little Filipino who was considered a dangerous opponent with a ring record of 23-4-1 with 20 knockouts and carried the nickname "The Little Pacquiao" in reference to boxing icon Manny Pacquiao .
The South African sports site was also full of praise for referee Clancy claiming he was brilliant and cited his decision to give Condes two time out breaks from a very low blow and an accidental clash of heads without making a big d eal of the incidents.
There was no indication at all whether Clancy deducted a point from Joyi for the accidental clash of heads in which Condes was cut, neither was there any indication of how much the very low blow affected Condes.
Condes was praised as a “proud, courageous fighter who took a staggering amount of punishment yet was still moving well on strong legs in the final round” reinforcing what trainer Joven Jimenez told BoxingScene.com, insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports that Condes was in great condition and ready to go the distance if he had to.
Jimenez was clerarly disappointed when he learned of the loss claiming that Condes had told him he “didn’t want to fight because I was not going with him.” The trainer reportedly failed to secure a visa on time.
The sensitive Condes was, according to Jimenez, “feeling very low” after well-known Filipino promoter Sammy Gello-ani who accompanied Condes to South Africa returned home because of an unspecified problem and was not there for the fight.
Our efforts to contact Gell-ani over the past three days after being informed by promoter Branco Milenkovic that he had left South Africa, have been unsuccessful so far.
Condes did connect with some solid blows during the fight but he never really had Joyi in trouble. It was the third Filipino to lose to the talented South African. Armand de la Cruz was stopped in the second round in a battle for the vacant IBO title in November 2006 and Joyi retained the title when he also scored a 1st round knockout over Gabriel Pumar in a title defense on November 16, 2007..
Condes took time to recover from a blow on the hip and from a really low blow in the third round when referee Clancy gave the Filipino southpaw time to, in his words, “walk it off.”
Super Sport reported that Condes was also cut under the right eye in a clash of heads in the fifth round which in fact threatened an abbreviated ending but the corner of Condes where experienced cut-man and manager Dante Ortiz was reportedly working, did a good job to stop the bleeding helped Condes to go the distance.
The title eliminator was ordered by the IBF and negotiated by Ortiz and respected South African promoter Branco Milenkovic who handles Joyi since Garcia who won the title by a split decision over Condes in his hometown of La Paz last June 14, 2008 was not keen on giving the hard-hitting Filipino a rematch