Once again a Mexican journey man visited SA’s shores and dealt a beating to a local boxer.Ulises Lara, who has lost 16 bouts with only 20 wins, once again claimed the scalp of a local boxer when he soundly beat reigning SA flyweight champion, Thembelani Nxoshe, to lift the vacant WBC International title at Mdantsane Indoor Centre on Friday night.
In July Lara visited the region to brutally knock out Nhlanhla Ngamntwini to capture the WBA international title.Lara's two wins over local opposition has raised question marks about the standard of local boxing when a boxer with so many losses can easily beat SA boxing stars. While he halted Ngamntwini in two rounds, Friday night’s bout was a points victory for Lara which was scant consolation for the local boxing fraternity.
In fact Nxoshe appeared to be headed for revenge when he matched the free swinging Mexican punch for punch in the first four rounds.Fighting on even terms with the visitor, Nxoshe was able to use angles to stay away from the wicked right cross which had knocked out Ngamntwini.
The even terms of the fight was reflected by two of the judges’ scorecards which had the fight even at 38-38 apiece while the third credited Lara for his aggression with a 39-38 tally.After that bold stand, Nxoshe capitulated and allowed the Mexican to bully him around the ring. The pattern of the fight continued with Nxoshe further falling behind with each passing round.
After eight rounds Lara had moved ahead in all the scores by 78-76, 77-75 and 78-75. Despite trailing on the scores Nxoshe did not infuse a sense of urgency in his approach to save the fight which was slipping from his grasp. Instead he allowed Lara to tee off at will.
When the final bell sounded to end the fight, everyone knew that Nxoshe had lost and that Lara had become the bogey man for local boxing again.Scores of 117-111, 116-112 and 116-114 in favour of Lara only served to confirm what spectators had already witnessed in the ring. At least Nxoshe can claim he did not get knocked out like his nemesis Ngamntwini...