Ness retains SA welterweight title

By Ron Jackson

There was plenty of action on a cold Highveld Sunday afternoon at Emperors Palace near Kempton Park when Shaun Ness retained his South African welterweight title with a 12-round unanimous points decision over Ayanda Mthembu. The scores were 117-113 (Wally Snowball), 115-114 (Joe Chaane) and 117-111 (Simon Mokadi). Ness (66.4kg) made a slow start but picked up the pace to win the next seven rounds with Mthembu (65.85kg) taking a pounding. Referee Thabo Spampool could have stopped the fight in the eighth round when Ness backed up Mthembu against the ropes and landed a series of left and rights but did not have the power to stop the challenger. However, the gutsy Mthembu ranked at #5 made a come come-back in rounds ten and eleven against the tiring champion and stunned him on a number of occasions, but could not finish him off. Ness improved his record to 10-1-2, 5 KOs, and Mthembu’s record dropped 5-4-1, 4 KOs.

In a light flyweight contest Dee-Jay Kriel (47.75kg) had to come back from knockdowns in rounds two and four before he stopped Nyelisani Thagambega (47.70kg) in the seventh round of a scheduled eight.

Other results:

John Bopape W tko 1 Andile Mabilisa – junior middle
Ephraim Chauke draw 6 Morabedi Khotle – junior feather
Chaz Wasserman draw 4 Fiston Kabamba – light heavy
Lucky Mongebane W ko 1 Caiphus Thomas – light
Thulani Mbenge W tko 1 Zenzele Ntanzi – welter.

The tournament was presented by Jeff Ellis of African Ring in conjunction with Golden Gloves Promotions.