Boxing Ringside Report: Craig Watson vs. Ali Nuumbembe
© Curtis McCormick / Saddo Boxing
One of the four title fights on the Frank Maloney/Steve Wood shared promotion on Saturday at the Robin Park Centre in Wigan, England featured welterweight Ali Nuumbembe putting his Commonwealth crown on the line against hard punching Manchester southpaw Craig Watson.
Watson came out first and was greeted by a very vocal and large section of the audience, who had come to support their local hero. Glossop based Nuumbembe came out next with his smaller but devotedly hard-core following showering their favorite with applause to try and combat the vigorous “Who are ya? Who are ya?” chants of the Watson cheering section.
In the first frame, Nuumbembe tried to study Watson but the challenger eschewed that time honored tradition in favor of immediately attacking the Commonwealth king, scoring with several thudding overhand shots. But Nuumbembe soon regrouped and began to unload scathing counters upon the head of his tormentor.
But Watson won’t be dissuaded and shows surprising quickness in shaking Nuumbembe with a hammering combination that certainly got the attention of the native Namibian. Nuumbembe strikes back with a beautiful right hand that forces Watson onto the ropes as the first round comes to a close.
It’s clear by the second that Watson is bent on making this as rough a fight as possible, aiming to strip Nuumbembe of his quality boxing skills and forcing him to brawl. The Mancunian uses angles to dart into the champion’s space and is successful with clubbing blows that Nuumbembe is struggling to come to terms with.
Watson takes a breather and Nuumbembe leaps into the breach, throwing his rival off his stance behind a two handed binge that soon bloodies Watson’s nose. Watson grabs Nuumbembe and the two wrestle while trying to sneak in quick body shots before the southpaw employs good footwork to maintain distance as the champion comes forward again.
Any sense that Watson may be starting to respect the abilities of Nuumbembe are shot to hell in the third as the slugger again lunges at his quarry, banging home big right hooks along with a wayward head that may or may not have produced the deep laceration above the left eye of the Pride of Glossop.
The cut bleeds like a faucet as Nuumbembe tries to counter but is instead thrown thoroughly on the defensive by Watson’s bullying on the inside and soon it’s total trench warfare. Watson snakes in a hurtful right uppercut that sends blood spraying off the opposing duelist but Nuumbembe gains revenge with his own right hand that snaps back the head of the pressure artist. The third ends with Watson attempting to goad Nuumbembe in, but painfully aware of his injury, the champ wisely chooses to stay away for the last 10 seconds.
Nuumbembe’s cutman stems the flow of claret from the left eyebrow before the fourth can commence but Watson dedicates himself to undoing the recuperative process,targeting the break in Nuumbembe’s skin. While he is landing at times with this approach, “The Silent Assassin” reads the bad intentions of Watson and rips him with steaming ripostes.
Nuumbembe gains ground by stepping up the activity but Watson recovers to put Ali on the ropes for a bashing up until the champion backs his oppressor off with a smashing right hand to end the round.
The fifth starts with each man looking to put the other on the back foot and the momentum swings wildly to and fro.until Watson resumes with the accurate right jab designed to worsen Nuumbembe’s cut. Watson is more effective with the strategy than in the previous session as the right, brought up from near knee level, finds the target almost everytime it’s thrown. Crimson is now covering the entire left side of Nuumbembe’s face.
The champion tries to reduce the sight disadvantage he finds himself lumbered with by closing distance and slugging with the southpaw as they both throw any idea of defense to the wind. This degrades into sporadic firefights as the round comes to a close. The cut of Nuumbembe is livid as he walks to his corner, his face now a harlequin mask.
Watson returns to the approach of barging in and slugging with abandon in the sixth but gets a hammering to the body from Nuumbembe before the champ tries to bring order back to the proceedings with the jab.
Watson stops this standard approach dead in it’s tracks by belting out a left, right sequence over top of one of Nuumbembe’s jabs before resuming his efforts to increase the size of Nuumbembe’s cut.
The large amount of red on referee Dave Paris’ formerly white shirt stands as a testimonial to the effectiveness of Watson’s tactics and Nuumbembe is starting to flag under the intense pressure Watson is now beginning to exert. The round ends with Nuumbembe showing obvious distraction and discomfort as a result of the now massive cut, as he makes his way back to the corner.
Nuumbembe comes out in the seventh clearly trying to short circuit the inevitable stoppage that his ocular misfortune will no doubt attract in the near future. For the first minute of the round, Nuumbembe’s hands are a blur, chopping away at a cornered Watson and the challenger is at a loss to stem the sudden leather typhoon that is breaking on him with startling effectiveness. Watson bobs and weaves between the bullseyes that Nuumbembe is landing and survives until the African runs out of gas.
Watson emerges from the corner looking a bit ragged but is given time to regain his bearings as referee Paris calls a stop to the action to examine Nuumbembe’s horrific and profusely bleeding cut. After trainer Bob Shannon cleans the champion up, the bout is allowed to resume. Nuumbembe again pressures Watson and has the younger man backing up as the seventh comes to a close.
Before going out for the eighth, Nuumbembe’s corner is told by the ringside physician that this will be the last round. The champion looks to squeeze Watson again but is too tired to mount anything more than the occasional foray. Watson takes advantage of this lethargy to belt his counterpart and gets in a riveting left hand as Nuumbembe continues to exert ineffective pressure.
The blood of the champion continues to color large segments of the blue ring canvas a muddy brown and it must be just a matter of time before someone steps in to end what has clearly become a medical emergency.
Nuumbembe comes out for the ninth like a madman, throwing everything he has but this time Watson does the same and for 30 seconds the fur really flies until referee Paris intervenes due to Nuumbembe’s mutilated left eyebrow.
Watson jumps for joy as he has managed to unseat Nuumbembe, caging the Commonwealth Welterweight title in just his thirteenth contest, improving to 12-1 (4), at age 24.
The 29 year old Nuumbembe drops to 18-3-1 (6), losing his first title defense.