EVANS Mbamba and Mario Briones could do it all over again after sharing the spoils in their 12-rounder for the vacant WBF junior-featherweight title at Graceland Casino at the weekend, said promoter Thinus Strydom yesterday.

"Look, the rematch will be good for South Africa, the WBF, my sponsor Chesa Nyama and, most importantly, for the two boxers," said Strydom.

"While Evans believes he did enough to win, the Mexican also feels he should have been crowned the new champ, so clearly the rematch must happen and I'm sure SuperSport would love it too."

There were no knockdowns on Saturday night. Judge Rassie Erasmus from South Africa and Mexico's Sergio Sotela both scored the fight 114-114, while Neville Hotz seemed way off the mark when he voted countryman Mbamba the winner with a score of 117-111.

This writer's scorecard had Briones winning by two points, and that was based on his high work rate and aggression. Mbamba threw clean punches but too few of them.

Mbamba only has himself to blame for not winning the title.

The boxer occasionally stood against the ropes, took volumes of punches and countered with a punch or two. Mbamba, who campaigned most of his career in the junior- bantamweights, seemed surprisingly comfortable at junior-featherweight but he rarely shook Briones, a fully-fledged junior-featherweight fighter.

Mbamba would continuously hunt for Briones's head despite having seen that the Mexican could take a punch. His late rally in the last three rounds was not good enough to make up for the loss of points.

"Four weeks were not enough to prepare, since I came in as a late replacement for Tshifhiwa Munyai," was Mbamba's excuse.

Strydom, who revealed that he had agreed to an exclusive working relationship with Durandt and Manny Fernandes, wants to convince the WBF to give Mbamba another chance, which would, in fact, be his third, having failed to win the WBC and IBO belts previously.