From Carnival City Big Top Arena:
Cassius Baloyi vs Phillip Ndou
By Ginge Ecob
03.11.01
- Carnival City is near Johannesburg in South Africa.
I spoke about this upcoming fight a few months ago.
The fight was billed as "Fire and Ice".
The fire being Phillip Ndou, the fighter brawler and
knock out specialist, and Cassius Baloyi, The boxer
with a knock out punch.
Ndou was the W.B.U. World Junior Lightweight Champion
and Baloyi was the W.B.U. World Featherweight Champion.
They fought for the W.B.U. Catchweight Championship
of the World. The loser to give up their W.B.U. belt.
The bookmakers had Baloyi as the favourite to win.
Ndou was expected to try and knock Baloyi out from
the start. Baloyi was expected to out-box Ndou and
maybe knock him out later on. There was a lot of "needle
" in this fight as Ndou's trainer Nick Durandt
use to train Baloyi.
Phillip
Ndou
Record: 24-1-0 24 k.o's |
Tale of the tape |
Cassius
Baloyi
Record: 26-0-0 14 k.o's |
24
1.82 (6 ft)
1.84 (6 ft 1 inch)
57.85 kg (127.6 Lb.) |
Age
Height
Reach
Weight
|
26
1.80 (5 ft 11)
1.82 (6 ft)
57.65 ( 127.1 Lb.) |
Round one.
As expected, Phillip Ndou came out and tried to knock
Cassius Baloyi out in the first round. Baloyi boxed
from behind his jab and out-boxed Ndou. At times they
stood toe to toe and traded punches. Even in this
phase Baloyi out-punched Ndou. Baloyi's round.
Round two.
Another very fast action round. No toe to toe but
Ndou started boxing, as opposed to brawling, very
much to everyone's surprise and dominated the round.
Ndou's round.
Round three.
This round started at a very fast pace. The boxer's
stood toe to toe and traded punches with Ndou edging
slightly ahead. Baloyi came back strongly in last
few seconds. Ndou's round.
Round four.
Started at a more sedate pace with both boxers boxing
from behind the jab. A sudden speeding up at the close
of the round. Round even.
Round five.
This round went one way and then the other. Both men
took their turn to dominate. Round even.
Round six
Baloyi seemed to lose his "game plan". He
stopped using his jab and Ndou started boxing from
behind his jab. I had never seen him box, as opposed
to fight, this well since I have been a follower of
his. Ndou's round.
Round seven.
This round was almost a carbon copy of round five
and I scored it even.
Round eight.
Another slugfest, but I sensed that Ndou was just
starting to beat Baloyi to the punch and Baloyi seemed
to tire. Round even.
Round nine.
Another even round with Ndou looking the busier.
Round ten.
Ndou came out firing on all cylinders at the start
of this round. He had Baloyi in a lot of trouble and
had he not been so tired, I believe he would have
won by knock out. Baloyi came back strongly and Caught
Ndou with some good punches. Ndou's trainer really
yelled at him at the close of this round and told
him to stick to boxing and not brawling. Ndou's round.
Round eleven.
Ndou again out-boxed and out-punched Baloyi. His tiredness
again prevented a knock out. Baloyi came back with
a crunching punch right on the bell. Ndou's round.
Round Twelve.
Again Ndou boxed from behind the jab. Baloyi's face
was swollen on both sides. He had really been outboxed
for most of the evening. Ndou's round.
Ndou won on a unanimous decision. I scored it 114-109.
The judges saw it 116-112, 118-110 and 116-112, all
for Ndou. This was one of the best fights that I have
seen in a long time. It rivaled the Felix Trinidad-Bernard
Hopkins fight in September. Although Baloyi was adjudged
to have lost this fight, he showed that he is a young
man with the heart of a lion. Both fighters gained
the respect of many thousands of people tonight. The
biggest winner was the sport of boxing.
When I first wrote about this fight to Eastside Boxing
in August I predicted That Ndou would knock Baloyi
out in six. I must apologize to Baloyi. He is a lot
tougher than I thought.
Results on undercard.
Heavyweight over 4 rounds.
Balwin Hlongwane Drew with Osborne Mashimane
92.5 kg (204 Lb.) 8-3-1 8 k.o's 111.95 kg (247 Lb)
8-2-1 4 k. o's
Junior welterweight over 4 rounds.
Hugo Manqina 63.35 kg (139.7 Lb) drew with
Vincent Nobela 62.65 kg (140.3 Lb)
7-4-1 6 k.o's 8-2-1 3 k.o's
International Heavyweight over 8 rounds.
Joseph Chingangu 105.25 kg (232 Lb) 26-6-0
14 k.o's was knocked out by Derrick Brown 99
kg (218.27 Lb) 10-1-1- 8 k.o's at 1 minute 51 seconds
into the 5th round. Chingangu beat Herbie Hide in
Britain on 22nd September. Brown was one of Hasim
Rahman's sparring partners when he fought Lenox Lewis
earlier this year. Chingangu is from Zambia and Brown
from New York. Both now fight out of South Africa.
It was announced that Chingangu had a broken jaw after
this fight.
South African Super Middleweight title fight.
Andre Thysse, the champion, 9-1-0 6 k.o's 75.55
kg (166.6 Lb) beat Xolani Ngemntu 12-7-0 8
k.o's and 76 kg ( 167.6Lb). The referee stopped the
fight 2 minutes and 19 seconds into the 7th. round.
This stoppage was totally unnecessary as Ngemntu was
not even hurt. The referee Mr. Hunt is very experienced
and should know better.
International Heavyweight fight over 8 rounds.
Corrie Sanders, South Africa, 103.95 kg (229.2
Lb) 32-2-0 26 k.o's is the ex WBU world heavyweight
champion. He lost to Hasim Rahman by a knock out last
year. His opponent was Michael Sprott, 102.4
kg (225.8 Lb) 15-3-0 8k.o's from Britain. The referee
again stopped this fight for no reason at just over
1 minute into the first round. Sprott had gone down
and had easily beaten the count. He was up at nine
and ready to ready to continue but the referee called
the fight off.
This was a really good night's entertainment and was
only spoiled by the two premature stoppages in earlier
fights. The main event turned out to be a classic
and made up for all the earlier disappointments.
In August I asked the question. " Is Cassius
Baloyi as good as he appears or are his opponents
of low calibre". I now have the answer. Cassius
Baloyi is every bit as good as he appears. In fact
he is one hell of a boxer.
Ginge Ecob
