Challenger quickly sent to the canvas by the ‘new’ Ruann Visser
The South African heavyweight boxing champion, Ruann Visser, successfully defended his title in Pretoria on Sunday by sending his number one challenger to the canvas after just two minutes and thirty seconds in the first round.
There is an old saying that everything out of America is bigger and better. This has been proven wrong by Ruann Visser and his camp on Sunday night in the Sun Arena in Pretoria when the South African heavyweight champion successfully defended his title by defeating the number one challenger, Justice Siliga, in the first round of their title fight.
Visser sent Siliga to dreamland within two and a half minutes of the first round of the fight with a combination of blows, rounded off with a brilliant left hook.
The new Ruann Visser with his innovative new onslaught and style in the ring is obviously and radically a different fighter than the stagnating boxer who was in action at the same venue in February against Elvis Moyo.
The Visser camp must therefore be congratulated on having the courage and sobriety to get rid of the highly acclaimed American trainer, James Ali Bashir, after Visser’s career was in danger because of his stagnation under the Yank’s leadership.
Although Siliga never really looked like a man who could beat Visser, he is not incompetent in the ring or a palooka at all. He is an experienced fighter with fifteen professional fights under his belt and he was officially the number one contender for Visser’s South African heavyweight title.
The one aspect of this fight that would excite boxing experts is the fact that Visser for the first time in his career really looked like a man of which the boxing world is going to take notice.
It’s almost unbelievable how his new coach, 68-year-old Steve Kalakoda from Cape Town, transformed him in less than four months.
Kalakoda revealed beforehand that he immediately realized that Visser’s major shortcoming in his onslaught was his inability to properly and positively use his advantage in length and reach distance. Visser’s new attacking style was noticeable on Sunday afternoon and Siliga never had a chance to get near him.
By beating Siliga, Visser also became a continental champion, as the World Boxing Association (WBA) Pan Africa title was also at stake in the battle.
Visser and Siliga’s fight was the climax of the Battle of the Warriors 4 event, during which spectators in the Sun Arena at Times Square in Menlyn got value for money with plenty of action in the ring.
Only one of the nine fights of the tournament lasted all the way through and had to be decided on points. The other seven bouts have all ended with technical knockouts.
Among these fights the most exciting and spectacular was the heavyweight bout between Vladyslav Sirenko from the Ukraine and the tough and experienced Denis Bakhtov from Russia.
Bakhtov had to use all of his 20-year experience as a professional boxer to stay standing against the young emerging hard-hitting star, but the referee eventually ended the battle in the penultimate seventh round when the brave Russian could hardly see through his swollen eyes.
In another battle, the young Chris Thompson showed that he is probably ready to take on one of the bigger names in the difficult star-studded cruiserweight division in South Africa. He forced Youssef Mwanza Kasongo from the DRC to surrender after just three rounds of their fight.
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