by Nathan Gadugah

Accra Sports Stadium, Accra, Ghana - Ghana’s Joseph "King Kong" Agbeko has been crowned the new IBO Bantamweight Champion after beating Colombia’s Luis Melendez in 12 rounds of exciting exchanges.

The Ghanaian won by a unanimous decision with referee Deon Dwarte of South Africa scoring the bout 117-111, Ataa Eddie Pappoe of Ghana, 119-111 and Laten Oumgar of the Netherlands also scoring the bout 117-113.

It was quite a difficult tussle for Agbeko who made a return to the ring for the first time in 15 months and was made to sweat for the victory.

After a cautious start in the first round the two pugilists threw caution to the wind in the second and traded lots of punches much to the excitement of the partisan crowd.

But it was the Colombian who came strongly with a spirited performance, attacking from all angles but failing to exert power in his flurry of punches.

Agbeko backtracked for most part of the rounds but came in with a well timed, accurate punches to the body of his opponent.