Major and Latest Boxing news in Ghana
‘Game Boy’ Tagoe retains title
World title hopeful and reigning WBA International lightweight champion, Emmanuel Tagoe, last Saturday defeated Filipino Carlo Magali in their WBA lightweight championship at the Accra Stadium.
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Tagoe dominated the early exchanges from start to finish but his opponent was able to absorb most of his punches.
The James Town native, who has 28 fights with 15 kayos, penetrated with hard punches to the face of his opponent who responded with some combinations of his own.
In the second and third rounds, Tagoe continued with his onslaught and landed at will the chin and temple of Magali who fought back fiercely but had difficulty reaching the Ghanaian.
In the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds, Magali came in strongly with some hard punches of his own but Tagoe countered with uppercuts and left hooks to his jaw.
In the seventh and eight rounds, Tagoe pummeled his opponent who appeared exhausted and helpless. However, Magali countered but failed to reach the slippery Tagoe.
At this point, it appeared the Filipino had had enough and, therefore, failed to answer the bell in the ninth round, handing a technical knockout victory to Tagoe.
Though Tagoe dominated the fight, his usual theatric and showmanship failed to amuse the spectators.
However, it was the fight before the main bout which generated tension and frenzy among the fans. George "The Red Tiger" Ashie and Michael Ansah put everyone on tenterhooks - the consequence of a heated pre-bout argument among fans of the two boxers at Bukom - in their 10-round lightweight thriller.
Ashie triumphed eventually after pummeling Ansah through the first four rounds leading to the latter's failure to answer the bell in the fifth round. But the “Red Tiger fell” from grace to grass soon after being declared winner as he headed to Ansah's corner to pull him up to continue fighting.
In the other bouts, Patrick Ayi beat Edward Kambasi in the fourth round in their featherweight contest, while Prince Dzanie made light work of Ezekiel Annan also in the featherweight division.
Isaac Sackey defeated Dan Quartey in round five in their bantamweight contest, while Dodzi Kemeh defeated Stephen Okine in the third round of their interim welterweight contest.
