Tough showdown for Energy
Phillipus ‘Energy’ Nghitumbwa faces one of his toughest fights to date when he defends his WBO Global super bantamweight title against Leonardo Carrillo of Colombia at Mövenpick Hotel on Saturday night. The two pugilists came face to face for the first time yesterday ahead of the fight which will be the main event of the […] The post Tough showdown for Energy appeared first on The Namibian.
Black News 
Phillipus ‘Energy’ Nghitumbwa faces one of his toughest fights to date when he defends his WBO Global super bantamweight title against Leonardo Carrillo of Colombia at Mövenpick Hotel on Saturday night.
The two pugilists came face to face for the first time yesterday ahead of the fight which will be the main event of the Dr Sam Nujoma Boxing Bonanza, which will feature numerous other fights on the undercard.
Nghitumbwa, who has a record of 17 wins and 2 losses, is currently ranked fourth in the world by the influential boxing website boxrank.com, and promoter Nestor Tobias yesterday said a win will put him in line for a world title fight against Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue.
“It was not an easy fight to organise, because no one wants to come to Namibia to fight Energy. He is now ranked fourth in the world according to boxrank and Inoue is the champion. It will be difficult to get that fight but we always get it right – Namibia has produced four world champions before and we are about to do it again,” he said.
Carrillo, however, has an impressive record of 20 wins, one loss and one draw, and is the current WBA Fedelatin super bantamweight champion.
Yesterday he said he is well prepared and promised boxing fans a great fight, according to his trainer and interpreter Francisco Scott.
“Leonardo says thank you to the Namibian people, he likes the country, and everybody has been good with us and thanks too to the promoter Nestor. We’ve had a two-month training camp in the United States and we are coming to give the fans what they want to see. Energy has a good name here in Namibia but are prepared, we are ready to fight and we will provide a good fight for the fans – on Saturday night we are going to do our best to take the title to Colombia,” he said.
Nghitumbwa said he is well prepared and ready for the fight.
“I’d like to thank my opponent Leonardo Carrillo for coming, welcome and feel at home. Namibia is a great country with good people, but on Saturday its another matter and you will see whats coming for you. We trained well in the gym with my coaches SBK (Kaperu) and Nicky (Natangwe) and my sparring partners so we are ready. To the boxing fans out there – get your tickets, it’s almost time, my opponent is here and I’m also ready so let’s go – I can’t wait for Saturday,” he said.
In the main supporting bout Mateus Heita will defend his WBO Africa featherweight title against Zolisa Batyi of South Africa. Heita has only lost once in 15 pro fights but Batyi has an impressive record of 11 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses. Tobias said Heita will be fighting in honour of his mother who recently passed away.
“Heita just lost his mother – we talked about it and after the fight he’s going to bury his mother, so he will dedicate this fight to his mother and the whole nation,” he said.
There will be a total of 16 fights on Saturday, with the action set to start at 14h30 at the Movenpick Hotel.
Some of the main drawcards include Harry Simon Junior, who takes on Freeman Mabvongwe of Zimbabwe; Fredrich Nghutenanye, Joy Nangolo and Erastus Shapaka.
The entrance fee is N$100 per person or N$20 000 for a wine and dine table of 10.
The post Tough showdown for Energy appeared first on The Namibian.
