Chilemba wins comeback fight
Celebrated light heavyweight boxer Isaac ‘Golden Boy’ Chilemba won his return bout against Ghanaian journeyman Michael Gbenga by shutout at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in New York, USA on Saturday.
According to Fighnews.com, fighting on the non-televised undercard, Chilemba put his polish and precision up against Ghanaian’s pure power.
Gbenga was gunning for the stoppage with everything he threw, but Chilemba looked to control his shorter foe with beautiful jabs, movement and counters at a distance, always keeping wary of Gbenga’s loaded right hand.
Chilemba backed Gbenga into his own corner in the fourth round with chopping rights to the head and vicious left jabs to the body to control the round.
“After Gbenga tripped to the canvas, a telling right to Chilemba’s head with forty seconds left in the fifth had Gbenga re-energised, as he landed several more shots to head and body that had Chilemba reeling along the ropes,” reads part of the report.
The ‘Golden Boy’s’ poise enabled him to avoid further punishment and damage to end the round.
He looked to have Gbenga rocked in the eighth and final round with several clean right hands to the head, but had to settle for the scorecards of the judges. Judge Don Trella saw it 80-72, Don Ackerman and Wynn Kintz both tabbed it 79-73, all for Chilemba, now 21-2-2, 9 KOs.
Gbenga sags to his 10th loss, no matter how many wins he has.
Chilemba could not be reached for comment yesterday, but he told Weekend Nation in a pre-bout interview: “He got 16 knockouts out of his 16 wins and that obviously means he is a hard-hitter who cannot be taken lightly. Making a comeback on a guy like that means I got it all and back on the world title line.”
Before this fight, the ‘Golden Boy’ who last took to the ring in May when he failed his WBC world title bid after losing to Briton Anthony Bellew said his focus on Saturday’s bout.
