King of the ring, again

Jaipur, december 24

Vijender Singh belatedly went into the offensive to defend his WBO Oriental and Asia Pacific Super Middleweight titles with a unanimous verdict over African champion Ernest Amuzu here tonight, continuing his unbeaten run in the pro circuit.
With this victory, the Bhiwani boxer has now won 10 pro bouts on the trot.
The 32-year-old Olympics bronze medallist had come into this bout with a great run in his professional career, winning all his nine previous fights, and tonight was no different at a jam-packed Sawai Mansingh Stadium as he emerged as the king of ‘Rumble Rajasthan’.
It was a very cautious first round from both, and barring a few jabs here and there, both tried to read each other’s styles.
Vijender seemed to have found his bearings only when the sixth round started. He landed some real hard punches on Amuzu’s rib cage to take control of the bout. Amuzu returned the favour with a few of his own, but the West African Boxing Union middleweight champion could not sustain the tempo against his determined Indian opponent. A confident Vijender then turned up with renewed vigour to unleash a flurry of punches on Amuzu. Two powerful jabs on Amuzu’s jawline must have hurt the African, but he retaliated with a hook aiming at Vijender’s head. It was easy for Vijender thereafter as Amuzu committed technical blunders by rushing to the corners. With Vijender having an upper hand, a tired Amuzu tried to stage a fightback but the Indian was up to the task, even as the duo exchanged a few punches. Vijender played the percentage game during the final round when he had already suffered a muscle pull and did not attack a lot. Prior to this bout, Amuzu had 23 wins under his belt including 21 knockouts out of 25 fights.
In the other undercard bouts of the day, Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Amandeep Singh defeated Punjab’s Manoj Kumar. Kuldeep Dhanda beat Fateh Singh, Pradeep Kharera got the better of Nikhil Sharma and Dharmender Grewal beat Harsh Nagar.