After guiding his protégé, Cassper Nyovest, to victory against Priddy Ugly at the Celeb City 2 boxing exhibition earlier this month, pro boxer Sikho Nqothole secured his 16th win in the main event at the ESPN Africa’s premium boxing tournament, ESPN Africa Boxing 22.
After securing his victory, Nqothole was crowned the new WBO Global Junior Bantamweight champion. He fought against Demark Quibido in more than 12 rounds.
“It was a cagey affair early on with both fighters trying to feel each other out. Nqothole, though, settled quickly and looked the more comfortable of the two as he worked behind his jab and landed some nice shots,” a press statement read. “In the fifth round, the content swung massively in the South African’s favour when he knocked Quibido to the deck with a leading left hook. The man from the Philippines quickly got up and finished the round, but the damage was done.”
“Nqothole moved into cruise control after that, hitting and moving, scoring points almost at will. He capped an impressive display by knocking his opponent down with a straight right in the 12th round. Quibido managed to finish the fight, but there was nothing he could do as Nqothole racked up the 16th win of his career while the loss for Quibiso was his first.”
Ahead of the fight, Nyovest told ESPN he was keen to see Nqothole succeed in the right as “the point is to shine a light on South African boxing”.
“We’ve got world champions here that the country doesn’t even know about. People are ranked top 10 in the world, and it’s a shame that your own country doesn’t even know about you, but we talk every day about [Floyd] Mayweather and [Manny] Pacquiao, so for me, it’s a bit of a shame, and I just want to use my power as best I can to shine a little bit of light on these guys.”
Nqothele also told ESPN that he was at his “best” as he had experience and been in the industry for a “long time”.
