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IBO welterweight champ Lovemore N’dou heads back to the ring tonight, putting his belt at risk against challenger Bongani Mwelase at Emperor’s Palace in Kempton Park, South Africa.
At age 39, N’dou, 47-11-2 (31), is still going strong as evidenced by his performances last year that saw “The Black Panther” defeat Phillip N’dou on points for the IBO strap before posting a draw against Matthew Hatton in England to retain the title.
The iron-chinned former IBF light welter titlist has faced world champions Miguel Cotto, Kermit Cintron, Junior Witter, Sharmba Mitchell and Paulie Malignaggi but N’dou could also be in tough tonight in the form of the challenge posed by Mwelase, who will hold substantial advantages in the height, strength and age departments.
28 year old Mwelase, 14-0 (12) certainly hasn’t engaged quite the lineup of talent littering N’dou’s resume but the southpaw has had a fair share of experience against decent opponents during his four year professional career following a superb amateur run.
Mwelase took a leap up in class during his tenth bout and it was a crash course in the fight game delivered by South African and WBC International welter champion Lucky Lewele, who leveled Mwelase in the 11th and 12th frames but still ended up losing the contest to the prospect by a narrow points verdict in November, 2007.
After a routine South African title defense, Mwelase stopped Juan Carlos Ceferino Villarreal for the WBF belt in October, 2008 before losing it on the scales just one month later when “Cyclones” couldn’t get down below 154 pounds for a bout in which he stopped former Commonwealth king Ali Nuumbembe in the seventh.
In August, 2009 Mwelase made an official entry into the light middleweight division by outpointing Atilla Kovacs for the vacant WBF strap and hasn’t been in the ring since.
But that inactivity coupled with a potential difficulty in making the welter weight limit could raise the height of the hurdle Mwelase is attempting to leap tonight at Emperor’s Palace.
N’dou has been motivated by the challenger’s vow to produce a KO and the bad blood between the combatants will certainly add fuel to the fire.
Mwelase was floored against Lewele but was also dropped in an earlier Gauteng Provincial title bout by George Mapalakane; if the lanky lefty finds that he can’t keep N’dou off, the canvas might be waiting once again.
