James Toney African middleweight champion

By Ike Enwereuzor and Ralph George

15.10.01 - James "Hot Ice" Toney of Ghana stopped Nigerian Sunday "the Hammer" King "Hammer" at the Kaneshie Sports Complex in the early hours of Saturday october 13 to win the vacant African middleweight boxing title.

The end came dramatically as the Nigerian braggart who had boasted he would kayo Toney crumbled to the canvas in the sixth round, got up and held his midsection and
was counted out by referee Joseph Annan as he indicated he was in no mood to continue the fight. Toney left no one in doubt about his determination to annex the belt as he swung into action immediately after the first bell and chased his opponent around, jabbing effectively and following with powerful right crosses and hooks.

Midway into the round, Sunday hit the canvas as he slipped on the retreat. When he got up, he caught Toney in the face with a stinging right and tried to follow it up with a double fisted attack, but the new champion recovered quickly and fired three powerful rights to the face of the Nigerian and ended the round with some accurate body shots.

The chase continued in the second round with Toney clearly dictating the pace and pummelling his opponent with straight left jabs to his face and anchoring them
with brutal body punches. Sunday stunned Toney with a powerful right to the face
but the champion hit back and rocked him with swift combination punches to the head and midsection. It was a one-way traffic from round three as the Nigerian appeared scared of the power in Toney's punches and decided to beat the retreat without throwing any effective punches in the process. In the fifth, the pressure was too much for Hammer as Toney kept surging forward and hammering him with sledges from all angles. The Nigerian went into a clinch to avoid further punishment and when the referee broke them, he tried to target a bomb but Toney held up his guard in an
excellent defensive stance.

Then half way through the sixth, Toney smashed a right canon into the face of Sunday and followed it up with another to his midsection, dropping him in a neutral
corner. Sunday got up immediately but was clearly not in any mood to fight on and the referee counted him out on his feet to push Toney's unbeaten run to nine in as many fights, with eight knockouts and an African belt in the kitty.

In another title fight on the Prince and Baseline International Promotions Syndicate programme dubbed "Ogya Night," Moubi Armstrong dethroned Ben Odamatten in a spectacular fashion to become the national featherweight champion . Moubi who was the underdog, posted a performance that left no one in doubt about his championship claim at the end of the fight. In the end, he got a unanimous verdict as judge Godfred Cobbina scored it 112-117 and judges Confidence Hiagbe and Fred Ghartey made it 113-118 and 113-117 respectively for Moubi.

In the other under-cards, Alfred Tetteh out-pointed Alarape Akeem over six rounds in a middleweight bout while Malik Jabir, the national super-bantamweight champion gained a fourth round technical knockout over Mohammed Laryea and Joseph Sarkodie stopped Mbele Kene from the Democratic Republic of Congo in the sixth round of their lightweight fray. The Congolese was decked in the sixth and the ring doctor rushed into the ring even before the referee had finished counting. And when Mbele got up he complained about the situation, insisting that he could continue the fight. Brimah Kamako won a unanimous decision over Ibrahim Marshal in a six round catchweight contest and Ayittey Powers recorded a controversial 2-1-spit result over George Amuzu in a six round super-lightweight contest.