By Mesuli Zifo
Matima Molefe saved the day of a boxing tournament devoid of action when he produced a Sergio Martinez-like knockout of Paul Williams by up-rooting Simpiwe Tom in the second round to claim the vacant South African (SA) featherweight crown at East London’s Orient Theatre in South Africa on Sunday.
While Martinez stunned Williams with a chilling overarm left in their last November fight, Molefe achieved the feat with a right hand bomb but the after-effects of the punches were similar as Tom crashed face first just as Williams did.
Molefe’s stunning knockout should rate as the early candidate for the SA knockout of the year.
Other than Molefe’s sweet revenge of his lone loss he suffered against Tom in 12 fights with seven stoppages, the card was a huge disappointment.
Particularly disappointing was the performance of Brazilian Giovanni Andrade in his junior featherweight clash against SA knockout artist Macbute Sinyabi.
The 41-year-old Andrade who had previously shared the ring with such esteemed fighters as Juan Manuel Lopez, Martin Honorio, Johnny Tapia, Celestine Caballero, Guillermo Rigondeaux and other top fighters, apparently came to SA for an easy payday.
But he might not even get paid for his pathetic showing as the local commission revealed that his purse will be withheld pending an inquiry into his performance.
Suspicions were raised about Andrade’s seriousness about the fight when he arrived in the country alone without any of his trainers.
And when the fight started, the Brazilian appeared intent on clowning around than throwing punches.
He was decked by what looked like a right but quickly beat the count. Sinyabi floored him again with another right and Andrade enacted an Oscar De la Hoya performance vs Bernard Hopkins when he banged the canvas with such vigor that had he aimed those punches at Sinyabi the outcome might have been different.
Instead he continued to bang the floor with his fists while the referee was counting him out, sparking boos from the packed venue.
Although Sinyabi, who notched his 20 stoppage in 21 bouts against a single loss, is a knockout artist he certainly did not expected to stretch his knockout streak under such dubious circumstances.
But there was nothing dubious about Molefe’s coup de grace which avenged his 2007 four round-points loss to Tom.
Tom started well as he moved beautifully while teeing off with quick one twos to take the first half of the first round.
Molefe who initially looked as dry as a stone whilst his legs appeared stiff, gradually found his rhythm as his right hand constantly hit home.
Tom, whose technical flaw is fighting with his chin exposed, was staggered twice by the right hand bomb towards the end of the round but returned fire in an action packed round.
When the second frame started, Tom suddenly fought on the back foot and allowed Molefe to take the initiative, obviously wary of the right hand.
In a brief exchange Tom again left his chin unprotected for Molefe to counter with the wicked right hand. The rest was history.
In another vacant SA title clash illegal hand wraps victim Thanduxolo Gatyeni expended too much energy bouncing off the ring in the first round of his junior lightweight title clash against Godfrey Nzimande so much that by the second round he looked like a fighter who had already gone 11 rounds.
By the third round he was such a spent force that he survived by a combination of wrestling, holding and pushing until he was deducted a point in the following round.
After a barrage of punches by Nzimande the one-sided slaughter was finally called off in the fifth round costing Gatyeni his 12-fight unbeaten record while Nzimande regained the national title and moved to 21 wins, three losses, three draws and 13 stoppages.