By Mark Vester
IBO welterweight champion Lovemore Ndou, 39, has promised to retire if he doesn't score an impressive victory over unbeaten 28-year-old Bongani Mwelase (14-0, 12KOs) of South Africa on Saturday night at Emperors Palace in Gauteng. Ndou fought to a twelve round draw with Matthew Hatton earlier this year and says he is reaching near the end of his career which began 16 years ago.
Winning is no longer enough for Lovemore. He wants to be impressive. Qualified to be a lawyer in Australia, he will enter the legal world once his boxing career is finished.
"I know I'm going to win the fight, but I need to win convincingly for me to continue with the sport," Ndou told AAP. "Just a win is not good enough for me, I will walk away... I don't really have to fight. I'm not an ordinary fighter, I'm an educated guy. If I walk away from boxing tomorrow, I've got a lot to fall back on."
Ndou has the odds stacked against him. Mwelase has power in both hands, a decent height advantage and a tricky southpaw stance. None of that bothers Ndou, who fought some of best in his long career.
"People keep going on about his height, southpaw stance and his punching power, I'm not bothered about all of those factors," Ndou said. "I like fighting tall guys, southpaws don't bother me. People talk about his punching power. But what they don't realize, the people he has fought so far were tailor-made for him.
"I've been in with some of the greatest punchers of the world and they couldn't take me out, so what makes him think he's going to be the first one to take me out? Experience, that's the key to victory."
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