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Ricky Zililo Senior Sports Reporter
WORLD Boxing Federation African heavyweight champion Elvis “Bulawayo Bomber” Moyo exploded on South Africa’s Wilhelm “Tiny” Strauss, knocking him out in the third round of the Extreme Fighting Championship Africa match at Carnival City in Johannesburg on Thursday night.
It was Moyo’s second win in four cage fights with his first victory being on his maiden appearance at the beginning of the year when he beat Sors “Guru” Grobbelaar.
The Bulawayo Bomber went on to lose to Brendon Groenwald in May and Andrew Van Zyl at the beginning of last month.
In a telephone interview from his Johannesburg base yesterday, the former Tshaka Youth Centre boxer whose fight against Strauss was broadcast live on SuperSport, was happy with the damage that he did to his opponent.
“Truly speaking it was high time I got a win and I had to be patient for it. Tiny was unlucky because he found me hungry for a win and I couldn’t let him stand in my way. I improved on my ground work because the last two defeats came as a result of me going down and I couldn’t let that happen again. I was fast on my feet and I really broke the guy to pieces to the extent that two minutes into the third round he was just standing there having been confused by my punches,” said Moyo.
EFC non-title bouts are fought in three rounds with championship matches being five rounds. Each round is five minutes long and it took Moyo 12 minutes to get his win.
“I could have finished him early but I wanted to do more damage and avoid striking willy-nilly as that could have exposed me and given Tiny room to take me to the ground. He tried diving at me but because I had broken his ribs, jaws and nose… he was just helpless.
“I will continue working on my ground work because I believe that once I master ground work then I will be a complete cage fighter. I know I am good but I need to perfect my ground skill,” he said.
The next EFC Africa bout is set for Durban next month and Moyo is yet to consider whether to fight or not.
“My record now is evenly balanced at 2-2 and I want to make it three wins but I have to be patient and work on my ground tactics first. I don’t want to go to Durban because I am thinking of maybe defending my boxing title outside South Africa. There is a possibility that I might be in Zambia when the next EFC Africa fight is staged,” said Moyo.
His coach-cum-manager Gert Strydom was full of praise for the Zimbabwean pugilist.
“We could have won the fight in the first round or early second round but we didn’t want to engage too early in the rounds as we didn’t want to risk going to the ground. Elvis is still working on his ground but had he been more aggressive early he would have won the fight there and then.
“We are happy as a team that he has managed to find his feet and we are looking for more casualties,” said Strydom.
Online Reporter