LONDON, England \u2013 Sikho Nqothole believes Friday’s victory over Charlie Edwards was only the beginning.<\/p>\n
The South African secured the biggest win of his career, outpointing former WBC flyweight titleholder Edwards over 12 rounds at York Hall to earn the No. 1 ranking with the IBF at junior bantamweight.<\/p>\n
Nqothole’s sharp jab and heavier punches proved decisive throughout a high-quality contest, earning him a unanimous decision victory and moving him to the front of the queue for a shot at the IBF title currently held by Willibaldo Garcia.<\/p>\n
Garcia is scheduled to defend his belt against Andrew Moloney on June 6, with Nqothole expected to face the winner.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more I win, the more strength I put in, more strength, more boxing, everything must be combined. So that I know they watch me, they see the opportunities, the weaknesses, but I always change. I’m not one-dimensional in the fight,” Nqothole told BoxingScene.<\/p>\n
Despite the wide scorecards that read 116-113, 116-112 and 117-111 in favour of Nqothole, Edwards believed he had done enough to claim the win. The Englishman even showboated in the 12th and final session as he ran down the clock, much to the surprise of the Nqothole and his team. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe convinced himself to say to the judges, \u2018I won the fight,\u2019 but I knew myself it was not close,\u201d Nqothole said. \u201cIf my face was so swollen or whatever, then I would believe that the fight was close. I can feel my jab when I land on him, and he was not landing so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nqothole looked on course for a more emphatic victory after hurting Edwards in the third round and dominating much of the early action. As the fight progressed, however, his movement slowed and Edwards enjoyed his best spells of success.<\/p>\n
The South African revealed a surprisingly simple explanation.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy boot was so tight and my legs were flat, I feel like that’s why I was not moving so much,\u201d Nqothole explained. \u201cMy boot was so tight, I felt like they’re pinching me.\u201d<\/p>\n
York Hall’s notoriously humid atmosphere, intensified by London’s summer heat, posed little issue for the Eastern Cape native.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did not feel the heat so much, because where I come from it’s hot,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were training in the sun outside.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON, England \u2013 Sikho Nqothole believes Friday’s victory over Charlie Edwards was only the beginning. The South African…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6102,10078,209727,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-616375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxingscene","tag-sikho-nqothole","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}