Fourie gunned down by ‘Hitman’ Ngoma

Previously unbeaten South African lightweight prospect Kaine Fourie finds himself having to take stock of his career after suffering a major setback at the weekend.

The highly acclaimed 23-year-old IBF Continental champion, fondly dubbed “K9” by his fans, saw his defensive flaws brutally exposed early-on and succumbed to a shock first-round technical knockout defeat by the Zambian Simon Ngoma.

The bout, scheduled for 10 rounds, was the headliner on Aquila Boxing Promotions’ first tilt in the promotional business at the Galleria Events Arena in Sandton on Saturday night.

The popular 32-year-old WBC bridgerweight champion Kevin Lerena, still active as a boxer, is the front man for the newest promotional consortium, who staged an impressive tournament.

Floored in first round

Ngoma lived up to his nickname “Hitman”, flooring Fourie with a solid right cross in the opening round, from which he got up on wobbly feet.

With the round nearing an end, Fourie desperately tried to fight himself out of trouble instead of ideally trying to steer clear of his opponent or tie him up.

Amidst stunned gasps audible from the crowd, the Zambian was allowed to sustain the attack and landed another venomous right which dropped Fourie and referee Simon Mokadi had seen enough and waved it over.

Fight fans and pundits alike will now be waiting to see if Fourie (now 9-1-2), who is attached to Colin Nathan’s No Doubt Management consortium and trained by Gert Strydom, will be able to erase the mental scars and revive his career.

Wins for Allen and Ferreira

In the main supporting bout, the awkward switch-hitting former MMA fighter Boyd Allen gained a unanimous decision over the South Africa-based Malawian Denis Mwale.

Allen (now 8-1-1) needs to string together more combinations and more often than not sized up his opponent, lunged aimlessly and more often than not, failed to string together combinations, relying instead on in-out single punches to the head or body.

In a women’s junior lightweight women’s contest on the stacked undercard, Bernice Ferreira (now 7-0) out-pointed the highly experienced 26-fight veteran Bukiwe Nonina, who clearly felt the combined effects of scrambling to make weight and a lengthy layoff.