Moruti Mthalane vs Muhammad Waseem

[handsofstone]

For the vacant IBF Flyweight title on the Pacquiao/Matthysse card this weekend, Mthalane is a former holder of the title, never lost the title in the ring, he's a guy ive read a lot abut over the years but I don't think he's actually fought on UK TV before, he was KO'd by Donaire 10 years ago but he does have KO wins over Tete and Casimero so he's got form, he is 35 now though but still unbeaten since the Donaire loss

Waseem is Pakistani born but fights out of South Korea, he's unbeaten in 8 but looking through his record I'm pretty baffled how he's eligible to fight for this title, he's 30 now and his Boxrec pic shows him wearing what could be a Pakistan Olympic tracksuit so he might be an amateur standout

[jamamb]

waseems best am accomplishment was silver in the commonwealths, lost to andrew moloney in the final, moloneys bro jason is in the bantam wbss

seen a bit of him and not impressed at all, though dont know much about mthalane. obv some good names on the south efrikans record but cant recall seeing much of him

pretty much everything ive read about waseem is just him moaning about a lack of sponsorship money from pakistan, seems real salty about that

[PredatorHayds]

I rate Mthalane. Really big puncher for someone that low in the weights.

He will win this via KO.

[handsofstone]

I'm only into 1st round of this fight but Mthalane breaking all the rules for the little men, still at the top at 35 and still retains the busy style

Of course he could be KO'd or gassed by now but that's still pretty brave and impressive tactics, even the bigger guys who do fight at this age tailor their style, as for the usual Little Men, their usually done by 28

[handsofstone]

Well deserved win for Mthalane,116-113. he's got a freakish engine for a Flyweight in his mid 30s, like a Chris Edwards engine, a rarity at these weights, he old man'd Waseem for pretty much the whole fight, Mthalane kept pushing out the punches and Waseem looked like a rabbit in the headlights, got a little better in the second half, looked comfortable in his body language but in reality even the rounds where he was coming into it could've easily been scored to Mthalane who fought like a champ to keep in front

The KD Waseem scored in the 11th done nothing more than close the score, Mthalane regained control right up until the closing seconds when Waseem maybe hurt him again, I'm glad to finally see Mthalane, he's got a lot of morals that other well known boxers lack, certainly as far as weight divisions go, probably could've walked into a title shot at Super Flyweight years ago

I can understand Waseem being ranked by a ABC, their a mess but how the hell did BM have them in their top 10? its not as if he's from the usual countries, he showed plenty heart in which was a tough night for him but i cant have sympathy for a guy who is outworked in both halves of a fight aganst an albeit freakishly busy 35 year old, Mthalane might have been busy but for 8 rounds Waseem allowed him to get any shot off he wanted

[magnus]

Whoever does the monthly top tens for BM loves an unbeaten record.

The other month they had Daniel Dubois ahead of the likes of Haye and Price. He's probably in their P4P top 5 now.

[jamamb]

they Iove dubois at bm. last year after the povetkin-hammer fight the editor said for sure dubois wouldve stopped hammer and would already beat up pov

dubois was like 5-0 with 7 total rounds at that point. not like theres any difference between aj carter and povetkin

as for this fight, waseem actually did better then i thought, clearly lost but it was competitive and hes a legit fighter, he didnt exactly have the best pro experience to prepare for this either, if he can get a little better he could have some good results

[keirw]

I enjoyed this fight, glad Mthalane got the decision, I was a bit worried the judges might give it to Waseem after the knockdown but Mthalane did more than enough before that and won the last round too.