South African IBO super middleweight champion Tommy Oosthuizen cruised to what always seemed an inevitable sixth-round TKO win over Cameroon-born, Australian Serge Yannick at Emperors Palace on Saturday night.
Oosthuizen, who is ranked seventh in the world by the respected Ring Magazine, outclassed an opponent who was out of his element from the opening round, with the outcome of an early closure to the fight only a matter of time.
In another embarrassingly one-sided bout for the vacant IBO junior welterweight title, South Africa's Kaizer Mabuza pummelled Australian Steve Wills unmercifully before gaining a sixth round tko victory.
In fact, the fight might well have been stopped earlier as Wills unwisely overlooked the advice that fools rush in where angels fear to tread and moved forward throughout the proceeding to receive endless punishment from Mabuza's repertoire of crunching punches.
Although previously unbeaten in 16 bouts, the outclassed Australian has not fought for almost a year and it was difficult to understand how a fighter who is only ranked 22nd by the IBO was sanctioned as a title contender.
Flo Simba, the one-time “golden boy” prospect of the heavyweight division – until suffering shattering successive knock-out defeats – made his debut in the lower cruiserweight division and gave an encouraging, if not spectacular display while clearly beating journeyman Daniel Bruwer on points.
The judges gave the 10-round verdict to the popular Simba by 98-92, 97-93 and 99-91 margins and this more or less reflected his superiority against an opponenet who fought only in spurts.
For all this, Simba suffered a continual bloodied nose from the early rounds and the question marks against his ability to take a punch came into question at times as Bruwer launched desperate sorties.
Simba disclosed after the fight that he had shed a substantial 7,5kg to make the cruiserweight limit, but felt that had not affected his strength or fitness level.
In the most entertaining and action-packed contest on the five-bout programme,a classy Sipho Taliwe retained his WBC international junior lightweight title while outpointing a gallant, but outclassed Joey Stiglingh.
And Taliwe found time to demonstrate a degree of show-boating while gaining a 118-110, 118-109 and 117-11 success.
Stiglingh, however, showed his tenacity by brushing aside a second-round knockdown and giving a creditable performance. – Sapa