Chauke Retains Title In SA

WBF Junior Featherweight Champion Oscar ‘Golden Boy’ Chauke 24-4-2(7), made a successful defence of his title against Sergio Carlos Santillan 23-8-3(10), at Tempe Military Base in Bloemfontein,South Africa on Friday(Mar 7) night.

Chauke was making a voluntary defence of his title against Santillan, who had lost his last fight in September,2007.

Chauke controlled the fight from the outside using his jab against the shorter man. There was not much action in the first round,though, Chauke prodded with his jab and landed a few right hands. The second round had more action with Chauke pressing the action to try and impress those at ringside, Santillan was game and ate quite a bit of leather in the seconds session.

The champion was in control by round four hitting the Argentinean with useful combinations, not much was coming back from Santillan.

Santillan was on his bicycle in round five with Chauke stalking him. A slip caused Santillan to go down but the referee ruled it a knock down and gave him a standing eight count. Chauke went for the finish for the rest of the round hitting the challenger with fierce combinations and you could sense that the fight would end soon.

In round six Santillan landed a good right hand that shook the champion up but Chauke came back well controlling the round and at times attacking the body. Chauke was beginning to lose the intensity and seemed to be just doing enough to win the rounds, he was getting sloppy. The sloppiness continued in round eight and the challenger was catching the champion with overhand rights occasionally. At the end of the round, Chauke’s trainer told him to increase the intensity.

Round nine saw Chauke responding and was pressurizing the challenger and did seem to be doing what his corner requested by working his jab from the centre of the ring with very little coming back from Santillan. Chauke had a very useful 10th, at times working effectively to the body and still maintaining the straight right hand which was landing at will. Round 11 and 12 continued in the same vain and there was no doubt about the winner at the final bell.This writer did feel that Chauke could have stopped Santillan if he increased his work rate. Two judges scored the fight 120-108 and the third judge had it 120-107, all in favour of the South African. All in all a good show from Chauke.

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It was sad to watch Thomas ‘Merciless’ Mashaba’s lose his IBO featherweight title to Christobal Cruz, in the USA on Friday night. I think it just came down to a matter of quantity over quality. The good news though is that Mashaba did put on a good show in front of American fight fans and he gets a chance to win his title back in September when they do it again, this time in South Africa. Cruz had pre-signed a rematch clause and the fight is schedule for Emperors Palace in September. It was interesting to note how the ESPN commentators had Mashaba winning the bout by two points on Teddy Atlas’ unofficial scorecard.