Mission Accomplished Ballagou Captures Belt at
Mission Accomplished Ballagou Captures Belt at “KnockOut Poverty’ Event
Ringside Reporting: Diane Bennett – Diamond Boxing
A few missions were accomplished last night in New York City at the “KnockOut Poverty” landmark event which was held at the Hammerstein Ballroom. With many great performers inside and outside of the ring the night was a great hit. Lots of money was raised for the charitable organization, All for Africa which, helps fight poverty in Africa. With star performers on hand the boxing got started with the Continental Africa Cruiserweight Championship belt on the line. The bout pitted Jaffa “The African Assassin” Ballagou from Toga against tough veteran Manu Ntoh from Cameroon. The bout was original scheduled for eight rounds however, due to the cancellation of other fights previously scheduled this bout was changed to twelve rounds. Ballagou who has been absent from the ring for two years due to promotional and managerial issues got off to a very slow start, showing some ring rust do to the long layoff. Ballagou also had to deal with the powerful Ntoh who is a multiple World Muay Thai champion and has only been knocked out 3 times in 33 professional boxing matches. Ballagou felt Ntoh power in the very first round when Ntoh connected with viscous shots that landed Ballagou to the canvas. Ballagou was able to survive the first round knockdown, he still was very lackluster throughout the early rounds, between a few of the early rounds referee Eddie Claudio even had to tell Ballagou that he had to show more action. Ballagou was able to gain some momentum and appeared to be getting some of his old swagger back towards the latter part of round 3.
In round 4 Ballagou was able to even the knockout score recording a knockout of his own. Ballagou kept things going in rounds 5 and 6 then appeared tire out after the 6th. Ntoh who was game throughout, picking his spots to load up and often connecting with hard body shots, was ahead on the scoring cards going into the 11th round. In the 11th knowing he most likely needed a knockout to win the belt Ballagou staggered the fatigued warrior Ntoh with a left he was then able to finish Ntoh off with set of combinations, the referee stopped the bout at the 2:47 mark of the roind. The delighted Ballagou afterwards spoke about his early rust and plans to get right back into training at Church Street Gym. Ballagou is hopeful that his new management team can act quickly and start planning his next bout. He says he will continue to work on building up his endurance and that he will take on anyone in the light heavyweight division, mentioning the names of Roy Jones Jr., Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson. Oddly enough Glen Johnson was in attendance watching this bout.
The shortened boxing card which was narrowed down to only two bouts due to visa problems and illness of participants. However, the second bout on the card did not short change the fans. Former Olympian Eromosele “Bad Boy” Albert faced Ossie Duran in a twelve rounder for the IBF Continental Africa light middleweight title. This one was a slugfest right from the opening bell, both fighters gave it there all, landing barrages of punches throughout all 12 rounds. Both fighters left their jabs at home and were just throwing heat at each other. They battered each other, not discriminating against either the head or the body, landing to all places. As the match ended it appeared that Duran was a little more active landing the cleaner shots, but the judges scored this one a draw. The cards showed a big disparity in the scoring one judge had it 116 - 112 Duran another had it 117-111 Albert and the third judge scored the bout even at 114 -114.Diamond Boxing had this one 7 rounds to 5 for Duran (115 – 113).
The completive bouts were presented by Bob Duffy’s Ring promotions and the night also featured outstanding musical performances. Headlining the musical festivities was Grammy Winner and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Youssou N’Dour who impressed the crowd with his entertaining performance. The night was kicked off with an amazing African dance routine highlighted by bongo and acrobatic performances. Diamond Boxing has proudly contributed to the All for Africa cause to view the on-line charity auction http://www.allforafrica.org/.
Photos By: Robert Epstein
