REGIE Suganob failed in his bid to become a world champion after losing to International Boxing Federation (IBF) light flyweight champion Sivenathi Nontshinga by unanimous decision last Monday dawn, July 3, 2023 (PH time), at the International Convention Centre in East London, South Africa.
The 25-year-old Suganob stepped in the ring ready to fight and dethrone the defending champion. But Nontshinga, a savvy tactician, didn’t want to do anything with Suganob and backpedaled most of the fight and was content in scoring points with his counter attacks.
Suganob’s aggressiveness backfired in the opening round after he was caught by Nontshinga with a counter right hook that dropped him to the canvas near the end of the stanza. Suganob quickly got back up to his feet and survived the round.
Suganob was the aggressor all night, while Nontshinga was content with just throwing the occasional counter punches and backing up out of harm’s way. He also constantly clinched Suganob when he found himself in trouble.
Despite Suganob’s aggressiveness, the judges felt that Nontshinga was the winner by a wide margin.
Filipino judge Gil Co and French judge Jerome Lades had identical scores of 116-111, while French judge Ammar Sakraoui saw it 117-110 all in favor of the 24-year-old Nontshinga.
Nontshinga and his team were so confident that even before the scorecards were read, they were already celebrating their victory.
“We are sad, but we are motivated to be better. I know they will meet again because both fighters are young. Our team is shocked with the scoring. As we predicted, Nontshinga will always run,” said Suganob’s handler, PMI Boxing head honcho Floriezyl Echavez Podot.
Suganob will be back to the drawing board and will try to work his way back to the top for another world title shot in the near future.
“We’ll wait where Regie will land in the rankings. Then we will decide who to challenge next for a regional title. Hopefully next year we will get another shot at a world title,” Podot told SunStar Cebu. “He’s very upset with the scorecards but he’s in high spirits.”
Suganob suffered his first career defeat and dropped to 13-1 with four knockouts, while Nontshinga had a successful first title defense and remained undefeated at 12-0 with nine knockouts. / EKA