by S.Warren – Travelling to Germany and getting a win is not the easiest thing to do for a British fighter but Ashley ‘Treasure’ Theophane has achieved that feat four times over the last few years.
On Saturday 19th June, Theophane captured the IBO International Welterweight Title pounding out a victory against Afghan Harasch Hotaki. The first four rounds saw Theophane circling the ring and working his jab to affect. Hokati had never been past four rounds in his career so this must have been on the mind of Theophane who used caution against an opponent who has weighed middleweight in a few of his fights of 2009..
Hokati would say afterwards that he did not eat for three days trying to get to the Welterweight limit of 147lbs.
Theophane who is a Junior Welterweight moved up 7lbs to take this fight and win with speed, skill and good ring generalship.
Theophane looked like he was going to stop Hotaki in the last round but Hokati hung on for dear life. A win is a win and the Theophane bandwagon has picked up momentum once again.
The scores where 115-113 116-112 and 114-114. A majority win was more like a hometown verdict but lucky for Theophane he had three Italian judges on hand so the right man won in what looked like a shut out for him from my side of the arena.
Lovemore Ndou is the IBO World Welterweight champion and he is a reachable target for the London born St.Lucian fighter who is due to fight in New Mexico in August followed by a fight back in London October 10th.
There are many options for Theophane who has made a career out of fighting away from home which can not be easy as you can sometimes lose to an undeserving winner as was the case when he fought Golden Boy prospect Danny Garcia in El Paso, Texas back in February.
Julio Diaz, Jesus Chavez, Zab Judah and Jose Luis Castillo where all mentioned as possible opponents for Theophane this summer but it takes two to tango and the former World champions are not too keen to share a ring with the no fearing Theophane.