Fonfara Wins by unanimous decision over Doudou Ngumbu on Saturday’s Showtime Boxing Special Edition.
Ngumbu came out with a surprisingly aggressive approach, throwing looping, wild shots that kept Fonfara off-balance but rarely landed. To the delight of his large Polish fan base in attendance, Fonfara landed a huge right shot that dazed Ngumbu in the fifth, forcing him to clinch just to hold on and escape the round. Ngumbu was in trouble against the ropes with shaky legs, but Fonfara, who claimed he injured his right hand in the fourth round, stepped off the gas and didn’t do enough to finish his opponent.
Fonfara (26-3, 15 KOs) continued to wear down Ngumbu in the second half of the fight with body shots and while Ngumbu (33-6, 12 KOs) seemed to land more punches in the latter rounds, Fonfara’s shots inflicted more damage.
“He came ready, he came here looking for a win,” Fonfara said. “He had some good punches. I knew he could counter when I landed with a right, so I had to be a bit careful in there. But a win is a win. It was a hard fight for me, but it was good to bounce back from a loss and get a win for my fans.
“I wanted to finish him in the fifth, but I had to be careful that he didn’t catch me with a counterpunch.”
Ngumbu, who was making his U.S. debut, thought he did enough to pull out the victory.
“I accept the decision, but I’m not happy with it,” Ngumbu said. “I feel like I should have won.”
Tomoki Kameda defended his WBO Bantamweight World Championship and kept his undefeated record intact with a split-decision victory over Alejandro Hernandez, scored 115-113 Hernandez and 115-113 Kameda twice, in a fight that was seemingly wider than the judges’ scores indicated.
Kameda (31-0, 19 KOs) outworked Hernandez from the opening bell, contesting the fight in close quarters and pocketing rounds in the first half of the fight. His strength and speed was the difference, with Hernandez unable to land any meaningful punches against the champ. The rugged veteran was surviving, but Kameda held a massive advantage in power shots landed at the midway point of the championship bout.
Kameda was cut sometime after the seventh ro“I was surprised by the judges’ scorecards,” said Kameda, who made third successful defense of the 118-pound crown. “I thought I won by unanimous decision. He’s a good fighter and he’s experienced, but I thought it was clear that I won.
“I can’t remember what round the cut happened, but it was the first time I was cut in my career and it was a good learning experience.
“I’m going to talk to my team but we’re hoping for a unification fight with [Jamie] McDonnell.”und, the first cut of his career, and altered his fighting style in the eighth, reverting to a more cautious approach. Hernandez (28-11-2, 15 KOs) seemed to win a few of the latter rounds, but not enough to justify the 115-113 scorecard in the split-decision.
Hernandez thought he deserved the decision and appealed for a rematch after the fight.
“I feel I was the winner,” Hernandez said. “I want the rematch. I feel the decision was not accurate. My fans are probably thinking the same. This loss doesn’t bring me down, it motivates me to train harder and get back out there.
“I thought this was going to be a tougher fight. He was not the kind of fighter I thought he was going to be. I could feel his lack of confidence. He was nervous and I took advantage of that. He threw some power punches, but he didn’t hurt me. Look at me -I’m not hurt. Look at him. Look at his face. Look at his eye. He was in trouble.”
In the opening bout of the telecast, undefeated super featherweight contender Javier Fortuna scored a one-punch fifth round knockout of Abner Cotto in a dirty, foul-filled affair.
Both fighters were deducted points – Cotto for low blows and punching to the back of the head and Fortuna for punching after the bell. The first penalty was in the second, where Cotto threw two punches to the back of Fortuna’s head which the referee called a knockdown but simultaneously deducted a point against Cotto (18-3, 8 KOs), who was then penalized for low blows in the fourth.
Source: Showitme Boxing
Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime