By Helge Schutz

Copyright namibian

Flame ‘Special One’ Nangolo lived up to his moniker with a special performance against Steve Bagwasi of Botswana on Saturday night.

Bagwasi was a classy opponent with only one defeat in ten fights, but Nangolo rose to the occasion with an excellent all-round performance to retain his WBO Africa junior lightweight title with a unanimous points decision over 10 rounds.

All three judges gave him a commanding victory, scoring it 99-97, 99-92, 97-93 in his favour, as he notched up his 14th consecutive victory, while a top ten world ranking may now be beckoning.

Nangolo took his time to size up his opponent, stalking him for most of the opening round but by the second his solid jab started to find the target.

At the end of the second round he shook Bagwasi with a sharp hook to the head, but both boxers picked up the pace by the third as they exchanged blows in the centre of the ring.

Nangolo did most of the attacking but Bagwasi did not stand back and regularly caught him on the counter-attack with some punches of his own.

Nangolo, however, was very well conditioned and raised his performance and the tempo as the fight progressed.

In the final two rounds he had the crowd up on its feet shouting for more as he caught Bagwasi with a flurry of blows on the ropes, but Bagwasi managed to see out the fight.

Bagwasi gave a slick performance but there was never doubting the outcome though as Nangolo was a comfortable winner on all three the judges’ scorecards.

Afterwards he said he was very proud of having come this far.

“I’d like to thank the Almighty for keeping me safe and keeping my opponent safe tonight. This has been a long journey, and Im super proud of my performance,” he said.

“I also want to thank AC Promotions for doing so much work, my coaches for pushing me to the limit, and my sparring partners who pushed me so much during training,” he added.

Nangolo added that Bagwasi was a tough opponent but he bided his time.

“He came prepared and he was a dangerous guy, but I just stayed calm and didnt rush into making any mistakes.”

The results of other fights on the undercard were as follows:

Divas Naugongo beat Abraham Petrus on points in a lightweight fight over four rounds;

Paulus Amavila beat Fillipus Amwaama on points in a super welterweight fight over six rounds;

Robert Ndalelwa beat Hango Petrus on a technical knockout in a welterweight fight

Elias Moongela beat Simeon Edward on points in a bantamweight fight over four rounds.

Ruaan Rispel beat Nicanor Halkweendo on points in a lightweight fight over six rounds.

Hafeni Ngeyesha beat Benjamin Dula on points in a lightweight fight over four rounds.