Boxing Result: Lovemore N’dou – Naoufel Ben Rabah

N’dou Wins Right To Challenge IBF Champion Ricky Hatton

Lovemore “The Black Panther” N’dou wore down slick punching switch hitter Naoufel Ben Rabah in a thriller last night at the State Sports Center in the Sydney suburb of Homebush Bay, Australia to win an official eliminator for the IBF Light Welterweight title, currently held by England’s Ricky Hatton.

For the first two rounds, N’dou failed to engage the speedier Rabah, who worked effectively behind the jab. The third frame saw N’dou close the distance and begin to land his left hook. Rabah regained the upper hand in the fourth and fifth rounds but was shaken by left hook in the sixth as the pressure applied by N’dou began to pay off.

It was trench warfare in the seventh as both fighters traded hurtful blows with reckless, flatfooted abandon with neither having the advantage. Rabah had a good eighth round but N’dou relentlessly came forward and the toll on Rabah was apparent by the ninth stanza.

In the tenth Rabah seemed rejuvenated but he and N’dou threw caution to the wind and let fly with everything in the center of the ring. In the eleventh N’dou caught the exhausted Rabah with a hard left right combination that had the native Tunisian in dire straits along the ropes by round’s end.

The corner of Rabah, 24-3 (14), stopped the fight rather than let their man come out for the twelfth round and N’dou, 45-8-1 (30), was declared the winner. The 35 year old South African who now resides in Sydney becomes IBF Light Welter Champion Ricky Hatton’s number one challenger.

In other action, former world title challenger Paul Briggs, 26-3 (18), returned to winning ways with a decision over Rupert Van Aswegan, 12-5-1 (7), to annex the vacant IBF Australasian Light Heavyweight belt, Sakio Bika, 22-2-2 (14), retained his IBF Australasian Super Middleweight crown with a 12 round decision over South Africa’s Andre Thysse, 19-8 (11), welterweight Robert Medley, 17-0 (11), won the IBF Australasian title with a decision over Kaiser Mabuza, 12-5-2 (7), and light middle Daniel Geale, 15-0 (11), won the IBF Pan Pacific prize by decisioning Lee Oti, 7-5 (5).