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In the opening fight of a seven bout card held at Bally’s Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey last Saturday Kaizer Mabuza of Johannesburg, South Africa scored a shocking sixth round stoppage in an IBF Light Welterweight Eliminator over ex-WBO champion Kendall Holt of Paterson, New Jersey, impressive enough to possibly send Holt into retirement.
Mabuza, now 23-6-3 (13) threw power shots with both hands all night, coming forward and turning Holt’s evening into a horrific nightmare. Holt won the first, coming forward and scoring jab combinations, but got hit with power hooks to the body in the process. Unwilling to pay the price in rounds that followed, Holt covered up along the ropes or in corners, hoping either to lure Mabuza in and counter, or that Mabuza would tire and punch himself out.
Mabuza was in world class condition and never ran out of gas. Mabuza fearlessly came forward and tortured Holt relentlessly in rounds two through six with right uppercuts and left hooks to the face and body, rounds in which Holt showed little offense. In addition, right uppercuts from Mabuza gave Holt a bloody nose in the third and a swollen left eye in the sixth. Whatever Holt’s strategy, he had nothing left, and listlessly slumped in his corner at the end of the sixth, prompting Holt’s trainer, Aroz Gist, to end the one-sided slaughter.
Top Rank Vice-President, Holt’s promoter Carl Moretti, stated “Holt was like a heavy bag Mabuza could hit whenever he wanted.” Holt, who looked like a defenseless journeyman, showed nothing of the fighter who fought well with Timothy Bradley, Ricardo Torres and Demetrius Hopkins. Mabuza won a title shot at the winner of the unification bout between IBF champion Juan Urango and WBC champion Devon Alexander.
