Mhlongo loses on technical decision

© Nkuleko Mhlongo

South African junior-middleweight champion Nkuleko Mhlongo failed to capture the WBF junior middleweight belt when he was beaten on a six-round technical decision against
Rafael Bejaran at the Grosse Freiheit 36 in Hamburg, Germany, on Sunday night.

Bejaran, from the Dominican Republic who fights out of Hamburg, suffered a bad cut over his left eye in the second round from an accidental clash of heads, which worsened and the ringside doctor recommended that the fight be stopped at the end of the sixth round.

Judges Torben Seemann (Denmark) and Jens Uwe Baum scored it 58-56 and 60-54 in favour of Bejaran and judge Christian Roesen (Germany) had it 58-56 for Mhlongo.

The referee was Zbigniew Lagosz.
In a closely fought contest up until the stoppage the South African scored with the harder punches, but Bejaran was the busier of the two and landed more scoring punches.

Bejaran improved his record to 24-2-1; 10 and Mhlongo’s record dropped to 19-5; 15.