Weekly Roundup

Kenyan road warrior Geoffrey Munika, recent upset winner of the Masters Title in London, went back into the lion's den yet again, this time to Thailand, to test 34-2 powerhouse prospect Fahsai Sakkreeenin for the IBF Pan-Pacific Super Featherweight title on Tuesday. Munika started well with some nifty boxing, but in the third stanza, the Thai closed the range to score a quick knockdown. Munika, it is reported, hung on gamely to the tenth before being rescued by the ref. The thirty-six year old returns home with a tough 21-16-2 ledger.

On the undercard of Antonio Tarver's big upset IBO Cruiseweight title victory over Danny Green last Wednesday in Sydney, Australia, IBF fifteenth ranked Naoufel Ben Rabah, originally from Tunisa, scored a shocking third round KO over former world champion and number eight contender Isaac Hlatshwayo of South Africa to claim the vacant IBF Australasian Welterweight title. The Aussie resident scored his thirty fourth victory against 3 losses and hopes to get a third crack at a world title while Hlatshwayo must ponder what this disastrous loss, the third of his career against thirty wins, means to his future.

Also on the card, transplanted South African cruiserweight Pieter Cronje became only the second man to stop local journeyman Michael O'Donnell in thirteen losses scoring a fourth round KO. Cronje ups his stats to 13-4-1.

A separate card on Saturday night in Perth saw another transplanted South African, Virgil Kalakoda, unlucky to come up short with a hard fought twelve round split draw for the PABA Super Welterweight belt against local hero and world title challenger Daniel Dawson, 36-3. The thirty-three year old Kalakoda has only won one of his last six fights in compiling a 24-6-3 record, but continues to impress. Nigerian Commonwealth Games representative, Friday Nwaiwu, coming back from a shoulder dislocation loss in his last outing, scored his third win in five fights with a majority decision over Jeremy Allan in a Super Middleweight six rounder. Nwaiwu's only other loss was a hotly contested six rounder to fellow Aussie resident Serge Yannick of Cameroon. Allan drops to 7-8-1.

Burkina Faso Super Lightweight prospect Issouf Kinda, now calling US his home, reeled off his eleventh straight victory with a six round unanimous nod over trialhorse Bryan Abraham in an undercard fight in the Bronx, New York. The Burkinabe, a Silver medalist at the African Championships in 2007, shockingly has no KO's to his credit and it will be interesting to see how far he can go. Abraham, from nearby Schenectady, drops to 8-6.