Ricardo \u201cMagic Man\u201d Malajika reigned supreme for the fourth time as the International Boxing Organisation junior bantamweight champion after overcoming tough-as-nails Vince \u201cJ-Vince Hunter\u201d Paras from the Philippines over 12 rounds.<\/p>\n
He proved his true character, ability and potential by coming back from a knockdown in round one in veteran promoter Rodney Berman\u2019s Golden Gloves\u2019 \u201cSurvivor Series\u201d at Emperor\u2019s Palace.<\/p>\n
Sensing an early night, Paras fired a fusillade of punches in an attempt to switch off Malajika\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
But Malajika used lateral movements \u2014 shuffling and side-stepping, which are critical components of advanced boxing footwork \u2014 for both offence and defence. <\/p>\n
The tide turned from round five when Malajika began boxing from his jab while moving side to side like a ballet dancer.<\/p>\n
The pattern lasted the remaining seven rounds, although Paras had some moments where he shook Malajika with a looping right hand.<\/p>\n
In the end three judges were unanimous in their verdict with scores of 117-110; 115-112 and 116-111.<\/p>\n
Early in the night, Roarke \u201cRazor \u201d Knapp eliminated Kagiso \u201cReptile\u201d Bagwasi from Botswana, who retired in the fifth round of their semifinal bout that was scheduled for 10 rounds.<\/p>\n
In the second semifinal, Brandon \u201cFast Guns\u201d Thysse defeated Shervontaigh \u201cSK\u201d Koopman on points.<\/p>\n
This means Knapp and Thysse will meet in the finals next year. <\/p>\n
The winner of this junior middleweight series \u2014 the brain child of veteran promoter Rodney Berman \u2014 will pocket 60% of a R1,2m prize pot. <\/p>\n
Knapp\u2019s corner was manned by his new trainer, Dean Lewis from the UK, who replaced Vusi Mtolo.<\/p>\n
Knapp was too slick, fast and furious for his opponent throughout four rounds.<\/p>\n
Thysse won what was a topsy-turvy affair, going down in rounds two and five.<\/p>\n
But Thysse, whose corner was manned by Damien Durandt and Andson Kazembe, came back very strong, firing volleys of punches.<\/p>\n
Ushered to war by trainer and father, Charlton Koopman, and Brand Hulley, Koopman lost a point from referee Tony Nyangiwe for constant holding in round nine. <\/p>\n
The scores were 94-93; 95-93 and 95-92.<\/p>\n
Phikelelani \u201cStinger\u201d Khumalo retained his SA middleweight belt and took home the ABU title without breaking a sweat against Donjuan \u201cIron Dragon\u201d van Heerden.<\/p>\n
A well-executed stabbing jab square in the solar plexus in the first round took all the wind out of Van Heerden, who winced and turned away.<\/p>\n
Khumalo smelt blood and threw more shots as Van Heerden was backed into the ropes until he took a knee.<\/p>\n
He got up while referee Toto Shweni counted but ultimately quit after a minute and 20 seconds.<\/p>\n
Sowetan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ricardo \u201cMagic Man\u201d Malajika reigned supreme for the fourth time as the International Boxing Organisation junior bantamweight champion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,180473,180471,180475,180469,180470,180476,180474,180472,85],"class_list":["post-320267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-lateral-movements","tag-brandon-thysse-vs-shervontaigh-koopman","tag-emperors-palace-boxing","tag-malajika","tag-paras","tag-phikelelani-khumalo-vs-donjuan-van-heerden","tag-roarke-knapp-vs-kagiso-bagwasi","tag-sa-middleweight-belt","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}