By Mesuli Zifo
IBO featherweight champion Lusanda Komanisi was so upset when fans from his Mdantsane township home openly cheered for visiting Filipino boxer Roli Gasca in their clash in East London, South African on Monday night.
The knock out specialist was expected to easily blow away the Filipino to add to his impressive 17 stoppages in 18 wins with just three losses.
However he puffed and huffed throughout the bout characterised by posing and wild misses which turned the fans against him and opted to cheer for the Filipino probably because of his “Zuma”moniker.
Zuma is the surname of the South African president Jacob Zuma.
Buoyed by screams every time he landed a blow, Gasca upped the tempo and times drilled Komanisi with a two punch salvo to send the hall in raptures.
While he never showed any signs of being hurt, Komanisi would take the punches unflinchingly but apparently did not realise that they were counting in the judges 'scorecards.
Instead the local hero, resorted to theatrics as he complained bitterly every time his head came closer to Gasca's.
But when the referee ordered him to get on with it, Komanisi would relent, showing no sign of being hurt.
Throughout his opponent's theatrics, Gasca maintained his cool and continued to plot forward to land his swings.
The snoozefest which never rose to any heights was as confusing to score as it was to the judges who rendered differing cards.
One judge had Gasca ahead by 116-112 but was overruled by his colleagues who felt the defending champion deserved to retain his crown by 115-113 and 116-112 scores respectively.
It was Komanisi worst performance ever and his post fight remarks that East London boxing fans did not like him, could come back to haunt him.
“I know I am not liked here because I train in Johannesburg with Nick but I do not care because I do this to feed my family,” Komanisi said after the fight.
Komanisi is one of only two East London boxers still based in Johannesburg together with WBF junior welterweight champion Zolani Marali.
While he was happy to blame everyone but himself, reality is he never did anything to warrant any cheers from the fans.
One fan was overheard saying: “Komanisi must just cling to his IBO title because that is his ceiling. He must forget if he thinks he can hang with other world champions in the featherweight division.”
