Newly crowned South African junior welterweight champion Grant "Fireball" Fourie does not rate his dominance over a perplexed deposed champion Warren "The Warrior" Joubert as his finest outing.

"I don't think it was my best showing. I am happy but I can do better," said Fourie, who completely outclassed Joubert two weeks ago in the first defence of a title he had won in April.

"My main goal when I turned professional in 2007 was to become a South African champion."

He finally achieved that goal in only his first attempt in his fight against Joubert, after trying his luck with such lowly titles as the IBO All Africa.

Fourie failed to win the lesser recognised IBO All Africa lightweight title in 2009 when he was stopped in the 10th round by Jason Bedeman.

Fourie, the nephew of former SA middleweight and light heavyweight champion Pierre Fourie, added: "I may be 32, but I've never taken punishment or been in a lot of wars. I honestly don't think it was my best showing against Warren, But it has been a long and exciting cycle."

Fourie - whose corner was manned by successful veteran trainer Harold Volbrecht - dropped Joubert in the eighth round with a thunderous left-right combination.

He looked up and saw Volbrecht cautioning him to take things easy.

"I wanted to go 12 rounds to show that I could do it. I wanted the win to be decisive.

"Apart from maybe the sixth and the last two rounds, I believe I won the others," said Fourie, who won with scores of 114-112, 117-111, 116-110.

He described the Colin Nathan-trained deposed champion as a "good friend".