Uganda's Ouma keeps crown
2005-01-30 13:24
Atlantic City - Ugandan Kassim Ouma retained his International Boxing Federation junior middleweight crown here Saturday, taking a unanimous decision over Ghana's Kofi Jantuah.
Boxing's first all-African world title showdown in 48 years went to the reigning champion by judges scores of 118-110, 116-112 and 117-111.
Southpaw Ouma won his 13th fight in a row, rising to 20-1 with one draw and 13 knockouts. His lone loss was a first-round stoppage in 1999 at the hands of Puerto Rico's Agustin Silva.
Jantuah, who had won seven fights in a row, fell to 28-2, losing in his first world title bout. His only prior loss was a 10th-round stoppage in 2001 by Mexican Manuel Gomez.
It was the first all-African world title bout since 1957, when Nigerian Hogan Bassey stopped Algerian Cherif Hamia in 10 rounds for the vacant featherweight crown.
Jantuah outpunched Ouma in the opening round but the challenger suffered a cut over his right eye in the second round as the rivals exchanged punches at close range for several rounds, Ouma wearing down Jantuah a bit more each time.
Ouma took the IBF crown with a unanimous decision over American Verno Phillips last October.
Next for Ouma could be a unification showdown against World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association champion Winky Wright, an American who is set to face Felix Trinidad in a May middleweight bout that would not affect his reign.
After being forced into guerrilla combat at age five in his war-torn homeland, "Kassim The Dream" found boxing and defected to the United States as a teen in 1998 while on a US tour with a Ugandan boxing team.