By Jim Dower: #1 WBC, #7 IBF, #12 WBO cruiserweight contender Thabiso Mchunu (16-2, 10 KOs) saw his title hopes crushed tonight with his 11th round knockout defeat against KO artist #4 WBA, #5 WBO Ilunga Makabu (19-1, 18 KOs) at the International Convention Centre, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
In the 11th round, Makabu knocked an exhausted looking Mchunu to the canvas with a left to the head. As hurt as Mchunu was, he wasn’t going to be able to get up from the knockdown which left him flat on his face. The fight was then halted by referee Daniel van der Wiele.
Mchunu fought well in the 1st half of the fight in making Makabu frequently miss with his big power shots. But after the 7th, Mchunu began to visibly wear down under the strong pressure from the hard hitting Makabu. The 5’11” Mchunu had problems with Makabu’s big power. Makabu came into the fight with 17 knockouts in his last 18 fights, and his power was very much for real despite many of his knockouts coming against lower level opposition.
With this loss, Mchunu finds himself back at square one in trying to get a world title shot. He’d been ignored by the four world champions at cruiserweight despite having shown that he’s a very good fighter. The lost to Makabu will now give the champions and excuse to continue to ignore Mchunu despite the fact that he’s probably good enough to beat one or two of the current champions in the division. Beating Makabu is quite another thing due to his huge punching power.
This guy would give any of the four world champions problem with his power. However, he’s now in the same boat at Mchunu previously was in with none of the champions being interested in fighting him because he presents too much risk without much in the way of reward. For Makabu to get a world title shot, he’ll need to become the mandatory challenger, and even then you can bet that the champions are going to wait as long as possible before facing him.
Mchunu needs to work on his stamina so that he doesn’t gas out again in the future.
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