Lion’s roar silenced

Namibian boxer Emmanuel Mungandjela, fighting out of the MTC Nestor Sunshine Tobias Boxing Academy, was dropped twice by hard-hitter Pierce O’Leary in their 10-round fight at the O2 Arena Saturday night.

An opening-round knockdown created the false sense of another early night for the unbeaten Dubliner.

Instead, Mungandjela showed a lot of resilience in overcoming that knockdown as well as another late one in round five.

The Namibian was on wobbly legs at the start of round six but managed to remain upright for the remainder of the round.

O’Leary continued to land right hands at will, none of which could prevent the fight from going to the scorecards. At the end of the fight, the scorecards read 99-89, 96-92, 99-99 in favour of O’Leary.

This fight brings Mungandjela’s record to 21 fights, 14 wins, four losses, and one draw, whereas O’Leary continues to enjoy 11 unbeaten fights.



Tough battle

The two boxers were fighting on the fight card of Zach Parker and John Ryder. This was an all-British super middleweight matchup with the division’s vacant interim WBO title at stake.

Ryder claimed a long-elusive big win at the contender level, as he claimed a fifth-round injury stoppage over Parker.

The competitive fight was brought to a sudden halt at 0:01 of round five when it was learned that Parker suffered a broken right hand and could not continue.