Namibia’s World Boxing Organisation African champions Jon Jon Ndjolonimus and Charles Shinima retained their unbeaten records after winning their fights in contrasting fashion at the Together as One Part 9 boxing bonanza on Saturday night.
Ndjolonimus hardly built up a sweat before knocking out Dickson Saidi of Malawi in the fourth round, but Shinima won his fight in controversial fashion on a technical decision.
He was knocked down by Henriques Lando of Angola, but suffered an accidental head butt in the process, and eventually won the fight on a technical decision after leading on points at the time of the incident.
All three judges scored the fight in Shinima’s favour, 48-47, 50-45 and 49-46.
Lando was incensed by the decision, but Shinima’s trainer Nestor Tobias said the right decision was made.
“When you fight against these average boxers, it’s always difficult, but Charles put up a good performance, you saw his hand speed, his skills and his power,” he said.
“The boxing rules the rules are clear, if there is any accidental head butt and he can’t continue then the referee goes to the scorecard and Charles was leading on the scorecard, thats why he won the fight. That’s the rules, I don’t see any problem there,” he added.
Shinima certainly put in an impressive performance, displaying great hand speed, combinations and power, but he could not put the tough Angolan down.
He already had Lando in trouble on the ropes in the second round, but the Angolan managed to see out the round and gave as good as he got until the premature ending to the fight.
Shinima is now unbeaten after 16 fights and with the WBO Africa welterweight title and a world ranking of 12th, he is now well positioned to aim for higher honours.
Ndjolinimus, meanwhile, was in control from the start against Saidi, although he took a while to get into groove.
With a considerable height advantage and a much longer reach, he dominated from the start against Saidi who tried to stay out of reach for most of the fight.
Ndjolonimus took a while to get going, but Saidi’s luck ran out by the fourth round when he went down to a left hook body punch and although he managed to get up on his knees, he decided to remain down and was counted out.
Ndjolonimus, the WBO Africa super middleweight champion, is now also 16-0 and ranked seventh in the world by the WBO.
“Jon Jon is a world ranked fighter. Now we will go back to the gym and try and get him a better fight,” Tobias said after the fight.
The results of the other fights were as follows:
Immanuel Mungandjela beat Ebeneser Kaandunge on a third round TKO in a welterweight fight.
Paulus Amavila beat Jonas Shikukutu on a unanimous points decision over six rounds in a junior welterweight fight. (58-56, 58-56, 58-56).
Nestor Thomas beat Lamek Fabian on a unanimous decision over six rounds in a bantamweight fight (58-56, 59-55, 60-54).
The junior lightweight fight between Onesmus Nekundi and Gerson Vaeta ended in a technical draw after Vaeta was injured in the first round.
Lineekela Nghifindaka beat Martin Mukungu on a fourth round TKO in a featherweight fight.
Silas Shangunadja beat Edward Mbango on a split decision in a featherweight fight over four rounds (39-37, 40-36, 38-38).
Sam Mathews beat Stefanus Fabianus in a featherweight fight on a unanimous points decision over four rounds (59-55, 59-55, 60-55).
Fredrich Nghutenanye beat Benjamin Dula on a unanimous points decision (40-36, 40-36, 40-37) in a featherweight fight over four rounds.
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