Namibian boxing promoter Nestor Tobias once again called out Japanese superstar Naoya Inouye after Filippus ‘Energy’ Nghitumbwa beat Colombia’s Leonard Carrillo on a unanimous points decision to retain his WBO Global super bantamweight title on Saturday night.
After receiving initial stiff resistance, Nghitumbwa stepped up a gear to run out a comfortable winner after 12 rounds of action, with the judges scoring the fight 116-112, 117-111, 117-112 in his favour.
The win improved Nghitumbnwa’s record to 18 wins and two losses and should soon make him a mandatory challenger for world champion Inoue, who holds the WBO, WBC and IBF super bantamweight world titles and is seen by many as the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world
.Tobias, however, says Nghitumbwa has now proven himself and should get a shot at Inoue’s title.
“Now its up to the World Boxing Organisation (WBO) The champion is Inoue but he has been running. You know, Hitman (Moses) went to Japan he beat up (Yusuke) Kobori and won the world title. Energy also went to Japan and beat the former world champion (Yukinori Oguni) in the first round.
“Now if you call Japan to try and arrange a fight the phone is off, no one is answering, but we will go through the WBO structures, to assist us to get to the champion. Because they have to fight the mandatory challenger who is now Energy,” he says.
On Saturday night, Carrillo came out strongly with a snappy jab, but Nghitumbwa soon got the crowd cheering him on with some quick combinations.
By the third round he was regularly finding the target with his sharp jab and by the fifth he landed some big shots as he trapped Carrillo against the ropes.
The Colombian was tough and gave as good as he got, but Nghitumbwa continued to attack and was always in control, and with Carrillo tiring towards the end, the Namibian ran out a comfortable winner.
In the main supporting bout Mateus Heita retained his WBO Africa featherweght title with a split decision victory against Zolisa Batyi of South Africa.
Heita did the early attacking but Batyi gave as good as he got and by the sixth round, they had the crowd up on its feet cheering for more as they slugged it out in the centre of the ring.
Heita continued to set the pace but the durable Batyi gave as good as he got and in the end, Heita narrowly won the fight with two judges scoring it 117-112 and 118-110 in his favour, while a third scored it 115-113 in Batyi’s favour.
Heita’s record now stands at 15 wins and one loss, while Batyi’s stands at 11 wins, four losses and one draw.
Harry Simon Jr returned to the ring for the first time in more than a year, but despite his inactivity he comfortably beat Freeman Mabvongwe of Zimbabwe on a sixth round technical knockout.
Mabvongwe came out firing, throwing some big early shots, but Simon was hardly troubled and soon took control with his sharp jab and quick combinations.
By the fifth round he had Mabvongwe in trouble, landing some heavy body shots on the ropes, which signalled the end, as the Zimbabwean failed to come out for the next round.
The other results were as follows:
Frederick Nghutenanye beat Tapadazwa Mushando on a unanimous points decision in a junior lightweight fight.
Joiy Nangolo beat Rofhiwa Nemushungwa of South Africa on a unanimous points decision in a bantamweight fight.
Tangeni Salomon and David Johannes drew their lightweight fight over four rounds.
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