Emperors Palace, Kempton Park – For the vacant African Boxing Union cruiserweight title, Thomas Oosthuizen (28-1-2, 16 KOs) bounced back from his first career defeat, by winning a twelve round majority decision over dangerous puncher Thabiso Mchunu.

 

It was a closley contested fight, where both boxers were in need of a win. Oosthuizen with the better workrate, and Mchunu landing the harder punches.

 

The scores were 115-113, 115-113 and 114-114.

 

Coming in, Oosthuizen was snapping a decent layoff, with his last fight taking place in May of 2017. In that fight, he suffered the first loss of his professional run, after dropping a lopsided twelve round decision to Igor Mikhalkin in a battle for the vacant IBO light heavyweight title.

 

The 30-year-old Oosthuizen is a 10 year professional who has a plethora of big victories to his credit, most notably against Semanda Shabane (1-0-1), Jared Lovett (7-0) Cleber Argente Alves (5-1), Saul Roman (32-6), Evert Bravo (15-1-1), Aaron Pryor, Jr. (16-3), Francisco Sierra (24-4-1), Serge Yannick (14-1), Marcus Johnson (21-1), Rowland Bryant (16-1), Former world title challenger Fulgencio Zuniga (25-5), Ezequiel Maderna (20-1), Ryno Liebenberg (16-1), Robert Berridge (26-2-1), and Daniel Bruwer (24-6-1).

 

Mchunu has had a career of ups and downs in recent years. He had a quick knockout win in June, but he’s also lost four of his last seven fights – including knockout losses to Ilunga Makabu and cruiserweight king Oleksandr Usyk.The 30-year-old southpaw has been a player in the cruiserweight division for the better part of the last decade.

 

He has big wins over Sean Santana (4-1), Daniel Bruwer (21-1-1), and Zack Mwekassa (10-2); also, two wins over Flo Simba (12-2), former world heavyweight title challenger Eddie Chambers (36-3), Olanrewaju Durodola (17-1), and Boniface Kabore (18-3). He stopped Ricards Boloniks in his most recent winning bout on June 23rd.