International Boxing from Brentford, England

By Ginge Ecob

Saturday 26th April 2003, From Fountain Leisure Centre Brentford, England.

28.04 - The first contest was for the IBO Bantamweight championship of the World between Silence Mabuza from South Africa and Julio Caesar Medina from Argentina. Mabuza weighed in at 8 stone 5 pounds (117lbs,53.07 kg) and Medina at 8 stone 6 pounds.

In the first round the boxers just felt each other out and were cautious for most of the round. Suddenly Mabuza let go with a left hook over Medina's right and Medina went down. The referee started counting and when he got to eight the bell rang. Medina made it.

The second round was a similar affair with both boxers being cautious and not much action. In the third round Mabuza caught Medina with a short left hook right in the floating rib area and that was that. The official time was 55 seconds of the third round.

The second bout was for the British Masters Lightweight belt between Nigel Senior, the Champion
and Dave Stewart, the challenger. Senior weighed in at 9 stone 9 pounds, (134 lbs, 60.78 kg) and Stewart at 9 stone 8 1/2 pounds. Stewart is a tall thin man and he had a height and reach advantage over the stocky Senior.

In the first round Senior employed some wrestling type tactics and used his strength to push Stewart around. Stewart used his skills and outboxed Senior causing a nasty cut over Senior's left eye just before the end of the round.

Round two saw Senior come out fighting. At 2 minutes 14 seconds left on the clock, Stewart put Senior down with a good punch. With 1 minute 33 secs left Stewart came alive and had Senior in trouble. A left-right combination followed with a similar combination had Senior down and the ref called off the fight at 1 minute 17 seconds of the second round. Stewart became the new British Masters Light Weight Champion.

The third fight was an International Super Featherweight contest between Philip Ndou, of South Africa and Alex Moon of England.

Ndou weighed in at 9 stone 8 pounds and Moon at 9 stone 7 3/4 pounds. Moon is an ex Commonwealth champion and Ndou is an ex WBU superfeatherweight World champion.

Round one saw Ndou dominate and after 38 seconds he let go with a right uppercut and had Moon on his back. Moon got up and withstood a lot of Ndou's very hard punches. At 1 minute 19 seconds of the first round Ndou hit Moon with a left uppercut and the ref counted Moon out.

The next fight was for the IBO Inter Continental Middleweight belt. The Champion Steve Bendall, 11 stone 6 pounds, (160 lbs 72.5 kg) and Mike Algeot of Belgium, 11 stone 4 1/2 pounds.

Both of these fighters are southpaws and this was an exciting fight. Unfortunately Steve Bendall seemed to underestimate his opponent and was, in my opinion, outboxed for most of the bout. At the end of the bout the two English judges had Bendall ahead and the South African judge had Algeot ahead. I had Algeot ahead 116-114. This was a blatant case of home town judges giving a fight to their countryman. Bendall was even knocked down in one of the later rounds so I don't consider how he could be judged a winner.

The feature fight was for the Commonwealth Heavyweight Belt between Danny Williams, England, and Bob Mirovic, Australia. Williams weighed 17 stone 7 pounds, (245 lbs, 111.13 kg) and Mirovic at 18 stone 12 pounds, (264 lbs, 119.74 kg).

For the first three rounds Mirovic outboxed Williams and I gave him, Mirovic, all three rounds. In the fourth round Williams hit Mirovic with a blatant low blow and after a short time Mirovic started to box again and Williams knocked him out.

Had it not been for the low blow, I think Mirovic could have won.

I believe that Philip Ndou would beat Floyd Mayweather Jnr. if the two ever meet. I don't suppose they will meet as Mayweather's handlers may see tonight's fight and decide not to risk their man against such a highly skilled opponent. There is one downside on Ndou's horizon . He has recently got engaged to be married, and perhaps he will lose the will to fight once he is married. It sometimes happens that women who marry boxers don't really like the sport and cause the man to lose that killer edge that makes a good fighter.

I do not think much of Danny Williams on tonight's performance. Until the low blow Mirovic outboxed him. Corrie Sanders would have no trouble with him in the ring.

Silence Mabuza should forget about the IBO and get one of the top belts. He is a young man with a great future in this sport.