The boxing year ended with a bang at Emperors Palace, on Saturday, November 9, when, among others, two of South Africa’s top boxers, IBO Super Middleweight World Champion Thomas “Tommy Gun” Oosthuizen and IBO Strawweight World Champion Hekkie “The Hexecutioner” Budler defended their respective titles against two Argentinean boxers, in the Fighting Force tournament.
The bout list consisted of local and international boxers, such as Argentina’s Ezequiel Maderna and Hugo Verchelli.
Kick-starting the evening were Thabiso Moorosi and Thabang Ramagole, vying for the Junior Flyweight title in a six-round bout.
The bout was called a draw in the sixth round, where Moorosi and Ramagole each scored 59, 57, and 57.
The Gauteng Junior Lightweight title was contested by Koos Sibiya and Thembani Hobyani, in a 10-round bout.
Although Hobyani seemed to dominate the first three rounds with firm punches, Sibiya soon gained strength and gave him a tough time until the last round, proving to be a tough nut to crack.
The fight was won by Sibiya in the 10th round, with a score of 97, 96, 97 against Hobyani’s score of 94, 94 and 93.
The first KO (knockout) of the evening was seen in the fight between Nkosinathi Tshinavhe and Adam De Moor, who were vying for the Junior Welterweight title.
This was the shortest fight of the evening and, two minutes and 41 seconds into the first round, De Moor cornered and punched Tshinavhe to the ground, ending and winning the fight.
The crowd stood up, clapped and welcomed Thomas “Tommy Gun” Oosthuizen to the ring, seemingly knowing that they were about to witness an real boxing spectacle.
Oosthuizen, who fought Argentina’s Ezequiel Maderna for the IBO Super Middleweight World title, didn’t waste time and started hitting Maderna with straight and firm punches from the get go.
Oosthuizen completely dominated the first round, while Maderna observed his (Oosthuizen’s) techniques.
Maderna started to pick up from the second round and seemed to have fully observed Oosthuizen’s way of fighting; this worked for him as he knew how to block Oosthuizen’s punches.
In the third round, both started to hit with more firm and direct punches and upper cuts.
It was in the sixth round that Maderna hit Oosthuizen with three cutting punches that left him bleeding.
Maderna saw the cut as an opportunity and kept targeting that area.
Even though Oosthuizen was badly cut, the one thing that stood out was how he managed to stomach the punches.
In the 10th round, Oosthuizen brought new techniques, which worked for him, to the ring, as he gave Maderna more accurate punches and started to gain dominance.
It was a 12-round bout and they fought it till the end, when Oosthuizen won with a score of 116, 117, 114, which was more than Maderna’s score of 112,111 and 114.
The last bout of the evening was the exciting and energetic meeting between South Africa’s Hekkie Budler and Argentina’s Hugo Verchelli, in the fight for the WBA Interim/IBO World Minimum Weight title.
These two 25-year-olds went straight for it, leaving no room for observation. They landed accurate punches and kept cornering each other.
The bout ended two minutes, 29 seconds into the fourth round, when Budler won by KO.
