Jeffrey Mathebula pins Takalani Ndlovu to grab the IBF super bantamweight title – Boxing news
Jeffrey Mathebula, South Africa’s number one super bantamweight, successfully collected a split decision in his favour against his fellow countryman and defending champion, Takalani Ndlovu, in a 12-round skirmish to become the new IBF super bantamweight
champion for the first time in his career.
The pay-per-view was promoted by Branco Milenkovic of Branco Sports Productions and the ring for the bouts were stretched at Carnival City Casino situated in Brakpan, Gauteng, South Africa.
Jeffery, also known as the ‘Mongoose’, was a bit outclassed by Takalani’s experience but still strived hard and put forth his hometown crowd an epic show of pugilism. The world number eleven, Jeffery, has been in a total 30 bouts and came out victorious
in 25. He has collected 14 of his total wins by knockout.
Mathebula, 32, recently became the number one contender for Takalani’s gold by grabbing an emphatic split decision win over Oscar Chauke. The odds were not in that much favour though Jeffery had the hometown advantage yet Takalani, widely known as the ‘Panther’,
had a clear upper hand in various aspects.
Takalani, 34, was entering in his career’s 40th bout and boasted 33 wins, 18 of them by knockout. The world number 12 super bantamweight grabbed the apex IBF divisional gold in a bout against Steve Molitor and successfully defended it against Giovanni Caro
by collecting a split decision in his favour.
This was Takalani’s second title defence bout and the veteran was totally ready to secure the number one position but fate was not in his favour on Saturday night since Jeffery came out of the ring as the better man.
The number one contender, Jeffery, was optimistic about using his height, crowd, speed, resilience, and agile footwork advantage to grab a win and he did do so by outwitting Takalani in almost each and every facet of the sport.
Takalani had the upper hand in the initial seven rounds and threw effective well targeted jabs. But everything changed when Jeffery understood the key to nail Takalani. Jeffery started using his reach advantage and pummelled Takalani with long ranged heavy-duty
jabs collecting much precious points every now and then.
The bout ended and two of the three designated judges awarded 117-112 and 116-112 to Mathebula whereas the third judge favoured the former champion by 115-113. After the bout, Jeffery proudly boasted, “I told South Africa I’m cute, I’m smart. And indeed
I am.”
Jeffery now has 26 wins in 31 bouts and the IBF gold round his waist whereas the unfortunate Takalani has grabbed his career’s seventh defeat in a total 40 bouts.
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