Fana wins the "Right" to fight Klassen

12.12.06 - by Colin Nathan @ ringside: Mzonke Fana is back in the frame as a "world" title contender, when last Friday night he beat South American Champion Roberto Arrieta in what the IBF deemed as an eliminator for their jnr. lightweight title. I put the word "right" in adverted commas, because, I think the IBF is in a weird position now, because it will be recalled that a few weeks back they too, sanctioned Kevin Kelley against Manuel Medina in what they too deemed an eliminator for this very same division and title!

Be that as it may, most fight fans will remember Fana for the way he was so easily brushed aside in two one sided rounds against Marco Antonio Barrera in April 2004.

The Argentian, Arrieta come to South Africa sporting a record of 21 wins 10 losses and 4 draws was not a noted puncher with only 6 knockouts to his name. Fana,whose chin has been suspect for quite sometime now, won the first four rounds on a trot on my scorecard, purely by using his crisp jab and using lateral movement to confuse Arrieta.

To put it simply, Arrieta litterally throw a handful of punches through the first four rounds, and I got the impression that maybe he was a little worried about fighting here in the high Altitude which over the years has proved a big factor for foreigners fighting here in Gauteng, South Africa.

Round 5, possibly was an even round with Arrieta for the first time really opening up and towards the end of the round backing up Fana, but still the first two minutes of the round belonged to Fana, with him spearing the head of Arrieta with that jab.

Round 6, found Arrieta actually again starting to back Fana up and he kept this going throughout the round, although as mentioned previously he is not a puncher and he kept telegraphing his right hands, his punches were slow in comparrision to Fana's and there was no snap on his shots.

But still he did enough to shade the round, only just on my card. Rounds 7 through to 10, according to me were all Fana due to his safety first tactics of using his classy jab and an occasional right hand over the top and moving. There were times in the fight when Arrieta simply looked quite amatuerish, and it was only in the last two rounds that he made some sort of effort to pressurize Fana.

He did get through with a few right hands but they had nothing on them. I had Fana winning 8 rounds to 4, the judges gave in the scores of 116-112(twice) and one of 118-111.

Fana is now 25 wins with 9kos and 3 losses. Based on this performance Fana will not beat current champion, Malcolm Klassen who too is from South Africa, although I don't think it will be as easily done as Barrera did in 2004. The question has to be asked now, who will the I.B.F. give the "right" to fight Klassen, will it be Medina or Fana?

On the undercard, the main support bout, Jeffery Mathebula knocked Mkuseli Khondile in two rounds in the featherweight division. Mathebula is the current WBC International Champion, this was a non-title and Khondile seems to be a completely spent force gettting knocked out by a right hand. He certainly looked a shadow of himself who years ago was the South African jnr. Lightweight champion and holds a dubious decision over Fana back in 1997.