Ankrah Upsets Quartey

Mortein Boxing award winner, Herbert Quartey, tasted his first defeat at the championship last Saturday night, courtesy a split decision defeat by Prosper Ankrah in the super bantamweight clash.

Ankrah, a former member of the national amateur boxing team, Black Bombers, won 58-57 and 60-56 on the score cards of two judges, while the third judge scored it 60-55 for Quartey after the six-round bout.

But the verdict met a protest by Akotoku Academy. A displeased Quartey, voted overall best boxer after the maiden Mortein Boxing League, led the camp in the protest against the decision: “If they want me to stop boxing, I will do so to please them.”

The fight itself, easily the pick of the night's pairings, had lived up to its billing as both boxers traded the best their strengths could muster.Quartey was accurate with his punches from the start and kept Ankrah at bay in the initial rounds.

But Ankrah who fought from the Black Panther Gym by superior height and reach advantage, piled points from the third, hitting and running, and managed to sustain the trend for the next two rounds.

The two traded hefty blows in the last round, but neither was in trouble of being knocked out. And when the final bell went, both were carried high by their fans. In other bouts on the second night of the competition, Solomon Danso of Wisdom Boxing Club scored a third round technical knockot win over Solomon Tetteh of Will Power Gym, also in the featherweight division, while Mohammed Desouza of Bukom Boxing Club won a second round technical knockout win over Believer Boxing Gym's Tico Agagako in their super bantamweight contest after the latter was disqualified for insisting on fighting without shoes.

Another former Black Bomber, Lante Addy of Attoh Quarshie Boxing Club, also won a fifth round technical knockout over Emmanuel Tagoe of Panix Boxing Club in their super bantamweight fight.

In a special package on the bill, former national champion, Eric Odumase, was handed a unanimous verdict against Nigerian boxing braggart, Simon Peter McIntosh, in their 10-round super lightweigh contest.