Roarke Knapp overcame three knockdowns to stop Cristiano Ndombassy at the beginning of round 5 Saturday night at Emperors Palace in Kempton Park, South Africa.

Knapp, who resides in nearby Edenvale, improves to 13-1, 11 knockouts and has now won his last four bouts, all by knockout, since losing to Brandon Thysse in November 2019. 

The 23-year-old was scheduled to face Thysse in a rematch Saturday, but Thysse withdrew from the fight weeks ago after testing positive for COVID-19. Ndombassy had split his previous six fights entering the Knapp fight.

Knapp won the opening two rounds, landing the more-telling punches and utilizing his ring generalship. Ndombassy scored a vicious knockdown in round 3, dropping Knapp hard to the canvas with an overhand right. Miraculously, Knapp was able to beat the count and was able to fight on despite fighting on shaky legs. 

Moments later, another overhand right dropped Knapp to the canvas. Knapp was able to beat the count and was able to fight, but another barrage of punches put him down to the canvas for the third time. The bell sounded to end the round, giving Knapp time to recover. It worked as Knapp was the aggressor during round 4, connecting with hard combinations to the head and body.

After the bell sounded to begin round 5, Ndombassy told referee Tony Nyangiwe he was not able to continue. The fight was officially waved off at 5 seconds into the round.

The victory over Ndombassy was Knapp’s first fight at middleweight after fighting most of his career at 154 pounds. Knapp is a part-time hairdresser.

Ndombassy, who is originally from Luanda, Angola, drops to 12-6, 9 KOs.

In the co-feature, junior middleweight Shervantaigh Koopman of Pretoria defeated Angola’s Henriques Lando (6-3, 6 KOs) by unanimous decision.

Scores were 98-91, 97-92, and 96-93 for Koopman, who improves to 9-0, 6 KOs.

In a clash of South Africa heavyweights, Juan Roux (5-0, 2 KOs) remained unbeaten by stopping Wilhelm Nebe (5-2, 4 KOs) at 2:17 of the opening round.

Saturday night marked the last card of 2021 for longtime South Africa promoter Rodney Berman. 

Francisco A. Salazar has written for BoxingScene since September 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing