By Prince Dornu-Leiku
Braimah “Bukom Banku” Kamoko (22-0, 16 KOs) moved a step closer towards a shot at the WBO world title with his unanimous decision victory over stubborn Namibian Vikapita Meroro last Saturday to add the WBO Africa Light Heavyweight belt to the lowly rated World Professional Boxing Federation (WPBF) title he already holds.
Vikapita refused to allow the man famously called Bukom Banku to launch two, three or more punch combinations all fight long at the Accra International Conference Centre amid boos and jeers from the disappointed crowd who realized the Namibian had deprived them of any exciting bout they had anticipated.
All three judges scored it 118-109, 116-110 and 115-113 for Bukum Banku who was disappointed with not only Vikapita’s unwillingness to fight
“This is not a fight, the opponent was afraid of me. He was just clinching and this really got me frustrated but I’m happy to win.
Now what I want is the world title. I want to fight Cleverly and take the WBO title, I can’t wait,”
On the under-card on the ‘No Turning Back’ bill put together by Golden Mike Boxing Promotions was South African Sikhulule Sidwumo who resorted to a flurry of low blows against Ghanaian Joshua Okine until the referee couldn’t take it no more but disqualify him in round 7 in their bout for the IBF Intercontinental Welterweight belt. Joshua Okine, famously called Bukom Tsatsu thereby added the IBF title to the WBO Africa Welterweight belt he already held.
Another Ghana world championship hopeful Emmanuel Tagoe won the IBF Intercontinental Super Featherweight title via a unanimous decision against Oscar Bravo of Chile. 118-110, 120-109 and 120-110 the Ghanaian triumphed on the scorecards of all three ringside judges.
In other bouts, Benjamin Ashley scored a split points decision win over Isaac Aryee to take the national Lightweight title in what was the last, but arguably the most exciting fight of the night as well as hot prospect Frederick Lawson claimed a unanimous decision against Kofi Manu in a welterweight contest.
Elsewhere, Sam Amoako beat Kareem Aroyo via unanimous points decision in their international lightweight fight, Patrick Allotey secured a unanimous decision victory in an international Catchweight contest against Jamiru Tyson whilst Michael Gbenga scored a 3rd round TKO over Eric Kwardey in a Light Heavyweight clash.
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
