By Brett BonettiFormer two time world title challenger Daniel “The Rock” Dawson (37-3 -1, 24 KOs) defeated a game Virgil Kalakoda (25-7-3) from South Africa via majority decision to claim the PABA & Pan African Middleweight Titles at the WA Italian Club, North Perth tonight.
Dawson and Kalakoda fought to an entertaining draw in July this year and Dawson was determined to be victorious this time round.
In a tough fight to score, Dawson started the fight well and took majority of the early rounds landing the cleaner blows.
But in Round 7, Kalakoda hurt Dawson with a good body shot to get himself back in the fight as Dawson seemed to be tiring.
Dawson who is trained by Bobby Mayne, author of “The Art of Boxing” urged his fighter to dig deep as Dawson managed to find something extra as he took Rounds 8 & 9 by moving well around the ring landing cleaner shots while making Kalakoda miss.
Similar to the first fight, Kalakoda finished strong and took the last 3 Rounds of the fight. Scores after 12 exciting rounds were 115-113, 115-112 Dawson and 114-114.
A very happy Dawson thanked his team and supporters and looks forward to his next opportunity. Two names that were mentioned as possible future opponents after the fight were Anthony “The Man” Mundine and current WBA World Light Middleweight Champion Austin Trout.
When asked about a possible trilogy with Kalakoda after fighting 24 rounds with him this year, Dawson said that he had learned this was Kalakoda’s last fight and wished him all the best and thanked him for a great fight.
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In other action, Heavyweight KO artist Lucas “Big Daddy” Browne (10-0, 9 KO’s) stopped late sub Alipate Liavaa (4-10) at 1:51 of Round 1.
Exciting Super Middleweight prospect Luke Sharp (3-0) lived up to the hype with a very impressive 2nd Round TKO victory over John Argus (1-1). After the fight Sharp said there is a possibilty he could move down to the Middleweight division in the future.
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Light Heavyweight Andrew Green (8-0, 5 KO’s) scored a points decision victory over Kashif Mumtaz (8-27-1) in a scrappy contest in what at times resembled an MMA match. Mumtaz kept the crowd entertained by poking his tongue out several times at Green during the fight and even used the “Crane Technique” pose from the Karate Kid movie in the middle of the ring in round 4. Scores after 6 rounds were 60-54, 60-54 and 59-55.
In the opening fight of the night Wes Capper defeated Daniel Roy Maxwell by unanimous decision with scores 40-36 on all cards.
In attendance tonight was Former WBO Female Lightweight Champion Erin McGowan who was interviewed in the ring. McGowan is hoping to bring WBC Light Welterweight Female champion Monica Silvina Acosta to Perth for a rematch for the title after McGowan was robbed of the title after being on the wrong end of a shocking judge’s decision in Argentina in August this year.
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