ESPN Africa 18 Serves Up a Sensational Night of Exciting and Tense Drama With Cassper Nyovest in Attendance

• The latest round of African boxing magic thrilled all those in attendance in Sandton, Johannesburg
• Every bout on the card for ESPN Africa Boxing 18 was decided by knockout as all the boxers made it a point of going for the win instead of keeping it conservative
• Kenya's Rayton Okwiri and Emmany Kalombo headlined the night's action as the crowd was entertained thoroughly by bold pugilistic action

The latest round of ESPN Boxing Africa proved to be the best iteration of the increasingly popular series.

The action took place at The Galleria in Sandton, Johannesburg in front of a highly enthusiastic crowd. Each fight was decided by knockout as the fighters on show went all out for victory satisfyingly instead of choosing the usually sensible approach of keeping matters conservative in eking out the victory.

In the opening fight of the night, a lightweight bout, Sinethemba Blom defeated Sandile Dumisa via a unanimous decision after it went all four rounds.

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Football

Cayden Truter absolutely manhandled Khanyisani Mbokazi in the six-round catchweight fight, knocking him out in the second round in sensational fashion.

Beginning the main fights of the evening, Sikho Nqothole accounted for Selemani Bangaiza with a superb knockout after only two minutes into the first round.

In what was easily the fight of the night, Gift Bholo and Hannock Phiri went hammer and tongs at each other in a junior welterweight showdown. Bholo went on to win in the fifth round in a fight which everyone in attendance dreamed could have gone on for another 30 minutes to an hour as both fighters forgot the concept of defence as the they tried to beat the living daylights out of one another. The crowd then applauded winner and loser as they left the ring in a resounding seal of approval.

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Other Sports

Jabulani Makhense beat Paul Kamanga in round four of a welterweight match, where the latter's corner surprisingly threw in the towel at the beginning of the fifth round of eight, a collision that proved highly intriguing as both fighters won and lost each round as it proved to be an unpredictable fight.

The trend of fights ending early continued in another welterweight contest, when Thulani Mbenge defeated Idd Pialari emerged victorious via technical knockout in round two.

The night's main event was between Emmany "The General" Kalombo and Rayton "Boom Boom" Okwiri for the vacant IBF International junior-middleweight. The General's Democratic Republic of the Congo compatriots made it a point of being as loud as possible as they lifted him to an eighth round TKO victory of the Kenyan former Olympian.

There was much excitement at some point in the night as rapper Cassper Nyovest, the most popular amateur boxer in the crowd, made an appearance as the guest of honour.

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NBA

"I'm going to chop him and put him to sleep": Rayton Okwiri and Emmany Kalombo headline ESPN Africa Boxing 18

The next edition of ESPN Africa Boxing will take the boxing world by storm with the 18th iteration set to take place tomorrow night (Thursday, 30 June) in Johannesburg.

On the line in the main event will be favourite Democratic Republic of Congo fighter Emmany "The General" Kalombo and Kenyan underdog Rayton "Boom Boom" Okwiri for the vacant IBF International junior middleweight.

The General has a 15-1-0 record, while Boom Boom remains unbeaten at 5-0-1. The bookies have Kalombo as the overwhelming favourite at 98% to win to Okwiri's paltry 2%.