Ghanaian Albert Mensah collects unanimous win over returning Aussie Michael Katsidis - Boxing news
Albert Mensah, the current IBF International light welterweight champion, outclassed the returning Michael Katsidis, former WBO lightweight champion, in a 10-round bout held on Friday April 13, 2012 by collecting an impressive unanimous decision in his favour.
The win is being dubbed as a milestone in Albert’s career since he was seriously overshadowed by Michael in various facets in fact had the odds, to some extent, against him.
Albert was entering in his career’s 29th bout and boasted 24 wins with 10 of them via knockout. Michael, on the other hand, was in his 34th bout and exhibited 28 wins with a huge 23 of them by knockout.
The above stats clearly show that Mensah was the underdog since Michael possessed more experience and the knockout proficiency. In addition, the one thing that was considered by all the critics was the fact that Katsidis, due to his previous defeats, hired
the services of a highly acknowledged world-class trainer, Justin Fortune.
Therefore it was expected that he might put forth a good show and most probably will annihilate Albert easily who interestingly resides at a pretty low position in the world rankings as compared to Michael.
Michael started things off in an authoritative manner and battered Albert viciously so much so that he pushed him back and ragged the Ghanaian here and there alongside the ropes.
Albert did not let Michael enjoy his battering and in the second round came back with his counter attack placing well-targeted jabs that connected Michael’s face and body inflicting as much damage possible.
Well known as the ‘Tornado’, Albert leashed his fury and kept on pummelling Michael while evading his jabs. The Aussie proud though threw the large number of punches yet they did not do the requisite job in fact most of them did not connect at all.
The tables turned when Mensah started to show visible signs of fatigue, the moment when Michael initiated his second wave of attack. It was from this point onwards that Katsidis started rallying on the point cards of all the three judges.
During the last round, it was the Aussie who faced the fatigue problem and gave Mensah ample opportunity to land as much jabs possible. The bout ended and Michael equalled on one card by 95-95 whereas on the other two collected unanimous loss by 94-96 and
92-98.
A brief analysis of the bout revealed that Michael threw a whopping 1,148 jabs as compared to Mensah’s 870. Despite that Katsidis lost the bout which shows that he severely needs to overcome his deficiencies.
On the other hand, for Albert it was his career’s most important day since a win over a pugilist who resides at top ranks, is a significant feat to achieve. Albert now has 25 wins in a total 29 bouts and Michael has collected his career’s sixth defeat and
unfortunately the fourth in last five bouts.
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