By Bradley Yeh 

Against Ricky Hatton, Kostya Tszyu’s successor, the ever dangerous Lovemore Ndou will now challenge for an IBF world title shot later this year.

In what was described by many ringside, as one of the best fights seen in Sydney for years, Naofel Ben Rabah finally submitted after both fighters furnished each other with intense exchanges and relentless punishment for 11 rounds.

With the triumph, “the black pather” Lovermore Ndou gains access to the much elusive world title shot he has toiled hard and yearned for so very long.

It was a signature conquest for Ndou last Sunday at Sydney’s Olympic park, after almost three years of vocal bitter infighting with the Perth based Ben Rabah.

In the end Naofel Ben Rabah was treated with oxygen after being unable to come out of his corner to start the 12th round.

With so much bad blood from words said prior to the fight, the prospect of losing was considered merely a notion that sports writers dangled misguidedly before Rabah and Ndou during their perfunctory interviews. However this is boxing and usually someone must lose, for the winner to be crowned.

Last Sunday Lovemore Ndou proved that a 35 year old fighter can mature with age to an extent that youth and superb skills will not always prevail. Given the correct game-plan execution.

Ben Rabah’s style, whilst pleasing to many boxing purists’ eye, will undoubtedly draw criticism from others. When Rabah dropped a decision to Juran Urango last year, many attributed that controversial loss to Rabah’s unique style. Rabah continuously moves, stepping backward or to the side, landing power shots from an assortment of angles and positions. He is rarely available to be countered due to this movement. It’s all a part of Rahba’s boxing finesse that otherwise might be described as a cross pollination of styles between Naseem Hamed, Sam Solimon and Joan Guzman.

Aside from being, fast, elusive and classy, Rabah is a fighter with a remarkable repertoire of coordinated hand and feet skills. On Sunday night he exhibited excellent footwork and elasticity to create unconventional angles and dangerous opportunities. Opportunities that at times were utilised with destructive consequences against Ndou.

At one stage midway through the contest it appeared as if Rabah was more than Ndou could see to.

It was Rabah’s utilisation of constant movement that allowed him to capitalise on openings, and send through successive waves of power shots from unconventional and startling angles.

The plan appeared to be to constantly move and ensure Ndou couldn’t set himself for distance or power. And, of course hurt Lovemore Ndou. The drawback with that plan was that Rabah was almost always going backwards during the fight, with his hands rarely in a position to defend himself - so confident of his evasive skills and success was Rabah.

Heavy laden with the many physical intricacies of a free-stylist-technician, Rabah’s style, even by championship level benchmarks, requires truly an elite level of boxing fitness in order to ensure all moving parts remain, active, synchronised and contributing to the same brutal purpose.

Rabah’s plan might have otherwise worked on a less experienced opponent than the underrated Ndou, who for the most part of the fight walked Rabah down, cut through his impressive footwork, shortened the ring, and made Rabah fight his fight, in close quarters, deep in the trenches.

Nearly all of the fight Ndou remained compact with his offence and fought through a smart tight defence that at times appeared under appreciated by the judge’s scorecards. Ndou was also mindful enough to ensure his punches remained within their allocated distances to circumvent unnecessary imbalances that may have otherwise contributed to Rabah’s dangerous angular momentum.

By comparison to Rabah, this policy lent to a conservation of energy for Ndou.

In short, Lovemore Ndou fought a medium to short distance fight that restricted Rabah’s overall effectiveness because Rabah’s stylistic advantages relied upon space to be fully exploited.

Ndou knew this. He also banked on the fact that championship rounds were where he was going to shine.

He wasn’t wrong.

Ndou’s strategy, simplified Rabah’s complexity, diffused his advantages and paid dividends. The tactic was both clever and brutal. And Ndou’s confidence in it and himself effectively grounded the contest deep in the terms of reference; stamina, experience, will, and power.

Championship rounds arrived, and going into round 10, it became clear that the fight no longer accommodated the advantages that Rabah had invested in, and ever so ruthlessly paraded in earlier rounds. The danger Rabah previously posed, mostly in his heavy awkward unpredictable hooks, was now easily contained.

Rabah and Ndou stood toe to toe for most of the fight on a slippery surface that stood as a tesimony to promoter advertising over boxer safety. In round eleven, stamina depleted, Rabah’s posture and movement became risk more than advantage. In that round as each minute passed, Rabah became noticably less balanced as he continuously searched for angles that had previously been so quick and easy to find.

In the closing seconds of the 11th round, Rabah’s hands down in a brazen act that rewarded slight regard to the urgent situation; Ndou staggered the 29 year old Naofel Ben Rabah with a powerful right hand and a crisp left hook.

The combination both impaired and confused Rabah.

It also sealed victory for Ndou.

Seconds later the bell rang and Rabah was hanging off the ropes, visibly disoriented in a corner that was not his own. It then took several more seconds for Rabah to return to his corner, where the gravity of the event took hold and he voluntarily retired. From there the referee Pete Podgorski called the bout off.

In the closing stages of the 11th round it seemed that Rabah may have been better served to be defensively minded. With his hands up. Unfortunately it was too late for advice after that point which Ndou delivered on his promise. Rabah was simply too tired then to create the sharp angles that his unconventionally placed hands had previously brought into thrilling effect by initiating their flight routes from outside of Ndou’s field of vision.

At this juncture, Rabah’s low hands and taunting posture was desperation disguised as bravado. And it did not work on the African warrior standing before him.

Rabah desperately needed to land a defining punch at that stage, not receive one. Or two.

Not unlike the sponsorship promotions that placed profit before safety, the true depth and personal value of the fight was now a shrilling symbol highlighted over square canvass. In stopping the skilful Rabah last Sunday night, Lovemore Ndou achieved what Juran Urango (Hatton’s last opponent) could not do.

Rabah, in June 2006, fought Urango for a controversial loss. Some attributed that defeat to Rabah’s style, particularly the judges understanding of it. Against Rabah, Ndou rendered scorecards unnecessary, but at the time of the stoppage Ndou was ahead by a point on two cards, and two points on the third card.

Juran Urango recently lost a UD to Ricky Hatton. In that fight Urango could not stop Rabah. Ndou has now achieved that honour. Ndou must now again attempt to do what Urango was unable to accomplish by defeating Ricky Hatton for the IBF Light Welterweight World title. After receiving criticism for fading in the later rounds against his last 2 opponents, Hatton is also currently under increasing pressure to deliver a truly scintillating performance similar to that, which allowed him success over Tszyu.

Lovermore Ndou has waited for this opportunity to fight for a world title for a long time. It has been 14 years since he first decided to toil in the dark spaces of South African professional prize-fighting.

All the ingredients now appear well placed for another memorable Light Welterweight showdown in June 2007 between an Australian and a Manchester fighter.

Lovemore Ndou completed the performance against Rabah by vowing to avenge Kostya Tszyu’s loss to England’s Ricky Hatton. The fight with Hatton will be for the IBF belt Hatton won from Tszyu 21 months ago. “The IBF gave Hatton a choice, to vacate the title and fight Castillo or hold on to his title and defend it against the winner tonight. If he doesn’t, I expect the IBF to hand me the belt, but I would hate to get a title like that. That’s not to say that I don’t deserve it, I do.” Ndou said.

Ndou continued, “If I get an opportunity against Ricky Hatton, I will give him the toughest fight of his career. He’s one of the fittest fighters out there, but if you can match his fitness I believe you can defeat him and I believe I will defeat him. I loved it when Rabah stood toe-to-toe and traded with me. I knew that was going to break him down. We knew that if I kept the pressure on, eventually I was going to make him fight my fight. He caught me with a couple of good shots but I took them like a man, and it all comes down to fitness. I believe that if I wasn’t as fit as I am, I wouldn’t have done that.”

Looking at the pace set in the fight between Ndou and Rabah, there is good reason to believe that Ndou can achieve the condition required to execute the plan against Hatton. The fitness of Lovemore Ndou was simply exceptional last Sunday night, as was his ability to stick to the plan regardless of the serious adversity presented by the talented Naofel Ben Rabah.

It was an impressive performance by “the black panther”, a man that has constructed most of his world-class experience by taking big fights on short notice with marquee fighters such as, Sharmbra Mitchell, Miguel Cotto, and Junior Witter. 

Undercard: Paul “Firepower” Briggs and Sakio Bika gave successful accounts of themselves, both via points wins to set up possible world title shots this year. When given the opportunity to explain why his assisgnment against South African Andre Thysse went 12 rounds, Bika indicated he had injured his elbow in the ninth round and was unable to throw a decent right hand.

Paul Briggs labelled his performance against Rupert Van Aswegen as, "the worst of my career". Briggs continued, "considering my preparation, tonight was undoubtedly the worst performance of my life.

I'm happy just to get the 12 rounds under my belt. Johnny Lewis basically wanted me to do this for my mind more than anything else, it was a mental thing, and its good to get the winning result."

Van Aswegen, Briggs’ opponent, was an awkward fighter from the same boxing family as former world champion Gerry Garcia.

Briggs certainly did not perform to the level he is capable of, but it should be noted that Briggs entered the fight after spraining his ankle 4 days prior, and had only just recovered from a 2 week rest resulting from a neck injury.

In that context Paul “Firepower” Briggs gave a very good account of himself.

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