Mdantsane’s Siyakholwa Kuse faded in the final rounds to lose a brave challenge for the WBC strawweight crown against Filipino champion Melvin Jerusalem in Manila early on Thursday morning (Wednesday evening SA time).
The judges gave Jerusalem a foot-up with two of them having the home boy up after eight rounds, and the third having Kuse two points ahead, a more realistic reflection.
But 31-year-old Jerusalem found his rhythm in the final four rounds to keep his belt on a unanimous decision, with two giving him a 116-112 margin and the third 115-113.
And Kuse was also gifted in the third round when the referee ruled a knockdown a slip.
But for the last four rounds, Kuse — who went into the bout with half the experience of the champion — mounted a solid challenge for most of the first eight rounds.
He attacked from the opening bell, using his longer reach to land punches and then slide to safety.
But in the second round Jerusalem’s right hand got closer and closer to Kuse’s jaw,
Kuse survived a knockdown in the third round, going down briefly after a shot to the side of the head, getting caught off-balance while lunging forward.
Had the referee not called it a slip, Jerusalem’s lead might have been greater.
By that stage Jerusalem had found his range, but Kuse hit back to ensure the momentum did not slip away, continuing his attacks with some effect.
Then Kuse switched up his strategy, using different tactics to avoid the right hand.
That saw him take the ascendancy again and leave the champion unable to offload significant blows.
The game plans devised by trainer Manny Fernandes were working to perfection at that point.
By the fifth round, Kuse was clearly on top, but Jerusalem landed some solid blows to bring himself back into the contest.
And Kuse dominated the sixth and seventh rounds, eluding the champion’s wild blows and keeping busy by landing punches.
Kuse, who kept his composure throughout, looked like the master and Jerusalem, who was mostly wild, the confused pretender.
Early in the eighth, Jerusalem lunged in and Kuse nailed him with a lead right hook.
By now Jerusalem was on the front foot most of the time and Kuse was content to counter.
But that is where Kuse lost his control
Jerusalem stepped it up in the final three rounds, landing more effectively than he had for most of the bout, though Kuse continued firing back, although with lower intensity.
Kuse, 26, saw his record drop to nine wins, three losses and a draw while Jerusalem improved to 25-3.
On the undercard, South African heavyweight champion Chris Thompson fought his heart out as he out-hustled Georgiy Yunovidov of Russia to score a unanimous decision over eight rounds.
Two judges scored it 78-74 and the third 77-75 for “The Wolf”, who finished the bout with a big welt under his left eye.
The Russian went into the ring as the favourite. The two had one opponent in common, another Russian who was stopped by Yunovidov but beat Thompson on points.
But Thompson met his opponent head-on and they stood toe to toe in an entertaining contest that was worthy of a tribute to the Thrilla in Manila, the famous Muhammad Ali versus Joe Frazier showdown 50 years ago.
Yunovidov landed with plenty of uppercuts early on while left-handed Thompson preferred throwing roundhouse bombs, targeting the body.
From the fourth round, the two started fighting from range and Yunovidov’s jab frequently found its target.
In the fifth, Yunovidov began fighting on the back foot, perhaps acknowledging the pace and power of Thompson.
But no matter what Yunovidov tried, he could not match the work rate of Thompson, who kept throwing punches, even when he got tagged.
Thompson improved his record to 17-6-1 while Yunovidov dropped to 11-2.