Oscar shows his prowess

One of the most tired sporting clichés is the one about the irresistible force meeting the immovable object.

But that is precisely how many observers labelled the clash between Oscar "Golden Boy" Chauke versus Prince "Fresh" Ndlovu in the build-up to their fight at Giyani Community Hall on Saturday night.

Coming out of the fight, which topped the five bill jointly presented by Hlanganisa Sport Promotion and the Giyani municipality, the cliché got an interesting twist.

Over the course of the gruelling fight, Chauke proved to be both the irresistible and immovable object in the successful defence of his title, which he achieved via a unanimous points decision. It was Ndlovu's inability to move Chauke that built the Sowetan champion's lead on the scorecards through the first half of the fight.

At the beginning of the fifth round Chauke, who took a pounding earlier on, showed the irresistible force part of his armoury by dropping Ndlovu for the count.

Again Ndlovu took a knee in round nine, although Chauke's blows were assisted by the slipperiness of the ring apron.

In the final round, when one expected the challenger to come out with guns blazing in an attempt to level the scores, it was Chauke who upped his tempo and dropped Ndlovu in the process. Scorecard from Siya Mani read 116-106, Ben Ncapayi 118-108 and Pumeza Zinakile 117-109, all confirming Chauke's 34th win in 46 fights. Ndlovu, who blamed the slippery ring, dropped to two defeats in 14 fights.

Meanwhile in an earlier bout, Sydney Maluleke pulverised Tawada Chigwida into submission over four rounds. Renson Hobyane was lucky to get only a warning from referee Ben Ncapayi, who should have either docked him a point or disqualified him, for deliberately hitting a fallen Johannes Pietersen with more than three punches. Hobyane dropped Pietersen with a straight right in the second round. Instead of going to the neutral corner to allow Ncapayi space to conduct his mandatory count, Hobyane took a step closer to Pietersen and hit him continuously until Ncapayi physically dragged him away.

Trainer Eugene Khanyile aptly threw in the towel rescuing his fighter from further punishment.

Other results:

Featherweight four rounds: Godfrey Nemukongwe beat Pfariso Neluvhalani on points; International female bantamweight six rounds: Bukiwe Nonina (SA) beat Diana Makube (Zimbabwe) on points.