PAULUS Moses won the vacant WBO Africa lightweight title after a unanimous points decision in his rematch against Thompson Mokwana of South Africa at the Windhoek Country Club on Saturday night.
It wasn’t a vintage performance by Moses who was made to miss a lot by the awkward Mokwana but he did enough to win comfortably in the end with the three judges scoring it 116-112, 117-112, 117-113 in his favour.
It was a good night for Namibian boxers who all won their fights against foreign opponents. Immanuel Naidjala beat Fadhili Majiha of Tanzania to retain the WBO Intercontinental bantamweight title; Julius Indongo beat Fabian Lyimo of Tanzania on a first round TKO to retain the WBO Africa junior welterweight title; Jeremia Nakathila beat Jasper Seroka of South Africa on an eighth round TKO to win the WBO Africa junior lightweight title; and Walter Kautondokwa beat Walter Dlamini of South Africa on a first round TKO to win the WBO Africa middleweight title.
In the main bout, Moses came out attacking with some sharp jabs, but Mokwana rocked Moses with a hook towards the end of the first round.
Moses soon recovered and landed some good jabs and combinations while Mokwana replied on the counterattack.
Moses had the crowd up on its feet in the sixth round as some big hooks landed on Mokwana, but the rugged South African recovered and shook Moses with a hook in the seventh round.
With the crowd urging him on, Moses landed some big shots in the latter rounds while Mokwana replied with counter-attacks as the two slugged it out in the centre of the ring.
Moses also missed a lot with some wild swinging hooks but in the end did more than his opponent to comfortably win the title.
Naidjala was rather fortunate to retain the WBO Intercontinental bantamweight title with a unanimous points victory against Fadhili Majiha of Tanzania.
Naidjala had a reach advantage over the nuggety Tanzanian, but failed to use his jab to good effect. In stead he tried to land some big hooks, but mostly missed, while Majiha landed some good body shots.
Some of Naidjala’s wild swings did find the target, but it was not a very attractive fight as the boxers mostly clinched in the centre of the ring.
Majiha landed some big body shots and hooks that shook Naidjala in the tenth round but the Namibian recovered and towards the end started using his jab to good effect.
Naidjala eventually won on a unanimous decision 117-111, 116-112, 116-112 but it was not a performance that will be remembered for long.
Julius Indongo defended his WBO Africa junior welterweight title in style with an explosive performance against Fabian Lyimo of Tanzania.
He sent Lyimo crashing to the canvas with a huge hook and although the Tanzanian managed to beat the count he was unsteady on his feet and the referee stepped in to stop the fight, 2 minutes 22 seconds into the first round.
It was Indongo’s 19th successive victory and he will now soon be eyeing higher honours after recently being ranked fourth in the world by the WBO.
Jeremia Nakathila gave a fine performance to beat Jasper Seroka of South Africa on an eighth round TKO to win the WBO Africa junior lightweight title.
Nakathila forced the pace from the start, but the experienced South African gave as good as he got and had Nakathila in trouble with some big shots in rounds four and six.
Nakathila however moved up a gear, landing big hooks in the seventh as Seroka finally wilted and held on for all his worth.
Nakathila finished him off early in the eight round, sending Seroka to the canvas with a big hook and although he managed to get up, he was in no shape to continue and the referee stopped the fight after 57 seconds.
The most explosive performance, however, came from Walter Kautondokwa who beat Walter Dlamini of South Africa on a first round TKO to win the WBO Africa middleweight title.
He sent Dlamini crashing to the canvas with a left hook and although Dlamini got up, Kautondokwa was all over him, laying in left and right hooks before the referee stopped the fight.
It was Kautondokwa’s 12th successive victory of which 11 have come via KO or TKO.
