In a contest that had the crowd on their feet from the first round until the last, defending South African flyweight champion Nkosingiphile “T-Prince” Sibisi retained his title via split decision against mandatory challenger Frank “The Tank” Sotomela tonight here in Estcourt, Kwa-Zulu Natal.
The first four rounds looked like Sibisi was boxing a smart, controlled fight, making Sotomela miss time and time again with his vaunted left hook while peppering him with a solid jab to keep him at bay and scoring with pinpoint punches down the middle.
After six rounds, Sotomela—realizing they were behind on the scores—urged their charge to keep the pressure on and force the pace.
Going into the ninth round, Sotomela seemed to find his second wind, forcing the champion to fight off the back foot. Rounds nine, ten and eleven saw the challenger being dominant on the front foot. With the fight incredibly close going into the last, the champion showed incredible resilience, sharp boxing skills and brilliant timing to win the 12th and final round clearly.
There was no surprise the decision was split: 116–112 Sibisi, 118–111 Sotomela, and the final score being 118–111 in favor of the defending champion Sibisi.
